A transport activist has told how she was nearly knocked off her bike, prompting memories of Claudia Comberti who was killed while cycling as she approached Botley Road.
Dr Hazel Dawe, of the Cowley Area Transport Group, is calling for more investment to protect cyclists after she was almost hit while cycling near The Corner House pub in Cowley.
Although a large amount of money is being spent on cycling safety by the county council Ms Dawe said more needed to be done to avoid more deaths.
Read again: Emergency cycling improvements
In a letter to the Oxford Mail she said: "This morning I was nearly run over while cycling around the Corner House roundabout, Oxford.
Dr Hazel Dawe
"After exiting the roundabout I could see a solid line of slowly moving traffic on Horspath Driftway all the way to the Eastern Bypass. Traffic levels are now above pre-Covid levels leading to overcrowding on Oxford’s roads and to more irate, impatient drivers."
A significant amount of money is being invested in measures to assist cyclists including new road markings on major routes like Abingdon Road.
Oxfordshire County Council is set to receive £2.9m from the government's emergency active travel fund to make it safer for people to use bikes and walk instead of driving or catching the bus as lockdown eases.
Read more: New wider cycle lanes on Abingdon Road
Spending of the first tranche of this money, £597,000, has begun, according to the council, with the biggest changes being more cycle parking and better bike route markings.
New cycle markings on Abingdon Road
Ms Dawe added: "When will the Council finally do something to reduce traffic levels? So far all we have seen is some ghostly white outlines of bicycles on the road, but no traffic reduction measures at all. In fact, we are now told the Council is considering postponing the one traffic reduction measure they had planned, installing bus gates. What we really need is full implementation of Connecting Oxford Plus – a properly thought-out scheme for the whole city not a piecemeal panic attack.
"It is now more than two years since the Gilligan report, Running out of Road, made it clear that Oxford’s cycle network has failed completely to put in any safety measures for cycling across junctions – such as at the Corner House roundabout.
"In those two years the council has done nothing to make junctions safer for cycling. More than three years ago Claudia Comberti was killed cycling on the Botley Road.
Read more: Inquest into death of Claudia Comberti
"The City Council has adopted the Claudia Charter which demands high standard cycling provision at junctions. Where are our safe junctions? It must act now before we have more cycling fatalities."
Claudia Comberti
Much-loved student Claudia Comberti, 31, was killed after falling into the path of a bus in Botley Road on May 9, 2017.
An inquest revealed that she died after falling into the path of the bus.
The 31-year-old, who was studying a DPhil in geography at Oxford University, was remembered by friends for her infectious 'zest for life'.
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