Sam Hampton on a more enlightened approach to cycling policy

EARLIER this year I visited Leiden in the Netherlands, with two other cycling enthusiasts from Oxford. Oxford and Leiden have been ‘twinned’ for over 70 years, and the event was organised by the Leiden twinning organisation.

Although we think of Oxford as a leading city for cycling, only 17 per cent of commuting trips are made by bicycle. This compares to 71 per cent in Leiden, where 93 per cent of the city’s residents own a bike, and 67 per cent say they use it most days.

It was easy to see the reasons behind these impressive figures when we spent part of our first day touring the city on typically sturdy Dutch bikes. Despite being an old medieval university town with narrow streets like Oxford, every road in the centre had a dedicated cycle lane, and bikes were permitted on all the pedestrianised streets.

As we left the centre, we found segregated bike lanes running alongside all the major roads into the city.

As well as the infrastructure for cycling around the city, we were impressed by the provision of cycle parking facilities. Leiden train station currently has an amazing 8,000 parking spaces, with another 5,000 planned for 2018. Comparing this with the situation in Oxford, Cyclox points out that in the whole of central Oxford there are only 1,800 bicycle parking spaces, and many of us who’ve had one or more bicycles stolen from the centre of town know that you’d be a fool to park your favourite bike here.

As part of our visit we met with employees of Leiden City Council’s transport team, hearing about their latest plans to develop their world-class infrastructure to build ‘fast lanes’ into the city alongside major trunk roads.

These would attract people to substitute the car for the bicycle for intercity trips. These cycling highways are built to avoid junctions and traffic lights and allow cyclists to maintain a higher speed on their journeys into town.

Despite the already high levels of cycling, the council have also begun a campaign called ‘Flink Fietsen’, which roughly translates as ‘fast, cool cycling’ to encourage more cycling, particularly among working women and schoolchildren.

I’ve returned to Oxford inspired to campaign for more Leiden-like cycling in the city. If we could increase the number of trips made by bicycle in the city, we’d all benefit from cleaner air, regular exercise, a stronger retail economy and more social inclusiveness.

There a number of small actions we can take in Oxford, and current proposals include allowing cyclists to use Queen Street 24 hours a day and putting up signs on the ring road saying ‘Welcome to Oxford: A Cycling Friendly City’. But significant change requires substantially greater investment in all aspects of cycling, from infrastructure such as segregated cycleways, to promotional campaigns to build confidence among Oxford residents who rarely cycle.