I HAVE just returned from a cycle ride along the A40 cycle path from north Oxford to Eynsham and back in the middle of the afternoon.

I saw six other cyclists on that excellent flat cycle path. As usual for 70 per cent of that ride, I was riding past almost totally stationary traffic in both directions, and this is before they start putting traffic lights on the major roundabouts!

I happen to enjoy cycling and motorcycling around Oxford and the surrounding countryside and I have routinely observed the build-up of this chronic congestion over the last 30 years or so.

Commercial traffic has to continue to fulfil its vital function. It has no alternative.

The private motorist, however, is compelled to drive even for the shortest of distances by habit, laziness or the elephant in the room for the egotistic British motorist: the kudos of being seen in their status symbol, for which they have paid as much as they can afford, to be perceived to be better than others around them.

I think it highly unlikely that painting a few white lines on the road, altering a roundabout or even building a few new cycle paths is going to precipitate a substantial change to how people get around. Otherwise it would have done so by now.

As far as buses are concerned, for the private motorist they are mostly for other people to use.

Chronic congestion is here to stay. It’s the price we pay for living in the most densely-populated country in Europe. Let’s hope future generations are less myopic.

STUART GILES
Woodstock Road
Oxford