It’s been a quiet summer in East Oxford but with the schools and unis back now, it’s getting hectic.

It’s not that they’re noisy – in fact, since the Regal nightclub became a church and the O2 Academy stopped hosting the infamous Fuzzy Ducks student night, east Oxford is peaceful. Except on the roads.

Pushing my 11-month-old around in her pram, it’s depressing to see how many kids are ferried to and from school and how many teenage undergraduates feel the need to drive.

Obesity and climate change aside, it’s just sad to think I’m bringing up my little girl in such a car-obsessed society. Will it just get worse every year?

I should be able to cycle anywhere with a baby in a city like Oxford, but I don’t feel I can. We ride side roads and through parks, but avoid the arterials, making it hard to get anywhere.

I wouldn’t feel safe on Cowley Road with my daughter in her co-pilot seat. Too many drivers are disrespectful morons who make riding with a toddler in a baby seat absolutely terrifying.

Cars still go way too fast for Oxford’s narrow Victorian roads. I’m so glad Thames Valley Chief Constable Sara Thornton has finally got the Roads Policing team to actually enforce the 20mph limits. East Oxford next, please.

Oxford’s traffic gets worse every year during school terms, and then worse again when the universities start back. Way too many kids are driven short distances to school. For every child who gets a lift the road gets exponentially worse, because every car takes a bike (or two) off the road.

It’s well known that where bikes are concerned, there is safety in numbers. We need a road system that all children and parents feel is safe to use.

Why can’t we ban all undergraduates from having cars? It’s true that some need a car but the vast majority of undergraduates, the 18 to 22-year-olds who bring cars en masse, should be banned outright. These lazy, spoilt tykes have no need for a car.

They should walk or cycle to lectures, or take buses to outlying campuses. They can get home in the holidays using trains and buses, the same as we did.

Although both universities have strict policies regarding non-car ownership for Students in university accommodation, this rule is hard to enforce and is disregarded by many.

Worse, neither university is willing to prohibit car ownership among undergraduates in private rented accommodation.

The universities should give teeth to their green transport policies and completely ban students from having cars, and employ proctors to enforce the ban. Students flouting the ban should be sent home for a term – by train or bus.

To their credit, the universities do offer free cycle training to all undergraduates. Shockingly, the take-up is often less than one per cent: freshers apparently have more important considerations than cycle safety.

Carrots are not enough. Give ’em some stick. It should be a condition of acceptance at either university for all able-bodied undergraduates to bring a roadworthy bicycle and to take a cycling proficiency course before they are allowed off the university’s premises.