After ten years in the saddle, I have retired as the chair of Cyclox. With a toddler and another child due, family and work have finally trumped my grubby cycle campaigning habit. They will be glad to have me back after a decade of furtive midnight email sessions, frequent evening meetings and hard-to-manage workday discussions with council officials.

Did I achieve what I set out to do? Not exactly – but then in 2003, my sights were set way too high. Idealistically, I imagined a few commuter challenges and Car-Free Day events with positive press would get everyone cycling overnight. Ten years later, it’s a question of the more you know the harder you realise it’s going to be. Oxford is no cycletopia and clearly it will take huge changes in the transportation preferences of thousands of people – not to mention decades and millions of pounds – to achieve it.

There’s no question Oxford is a cycling city – about 20 per cent of commuting journeys within the city are by bike, and 30 per cent of adults in Oxford cycle at least once a week. But despite the thriving bicycle culture and the successful ‘20’s Plenty’ campaign, cycling still isn’t that easy. There are actually some high-quality, if intermittent, bike routes in and around the city but every cyclist has their own list of black holes and disconnected routes. My bugbear is Cowley Road, a chaotic, pot-holed, traffic-choked melee, as bad for cyclists as it is for drivers despite the £1m safety improvements. A cycling city like Oxford deserves much better.

That’s why we formed Cyclox, back in 2003.

Over the years, the committee of at least 12 have made the role of chairman easier. Cyclox has become the go-to voice of cyclists in the city and is (I am told) well regarded by politicians of all parties. We co-operate with county and city council officers and liaise with dozens of councillors. Frequently our shared aspirations converge and are implemented, which makes all the campaigning and lobbying worthwhile.

Cyclox’s vision for a dual network is falling into place – gradually. ‘Dual network’ means a coherent and joined-up network for ‘fast’ cyclists on main roads and a quieter, backstreet network for less confident cyclists. And if the police manage to enforce the law on 20mph, that would make some of the back streets feel less like a Formula 1 warm-up track.

To chivvy this process along, Cyclox and Sustrans are developing a manifesto to proactively raise cycling to the next level. We want to enable anyone in the Oxford city region to feel safe cycling here, using proper joined-up bicycle infrastructure. Cyclox’s mission is to persuade the councils to turn our cycletopian aspirations into reality. So while I’m no longer Cyclox chairman, I’ll still be on the committee, beavering quietly away on the manifesto and assisting the group’s dynamic new chairman – Dr Simon Hunt.