Oxford cycle campaigners call for no more road deaths

Dr Ling Felce, 35, was knocked off her bicycle on The Plain roundabout last March by an unlicensed, uninsured and under the influence truck driver.

The mother of two’s death – the third cyclist to be killed in around six months in Oxford – led to an outpouring of grief and sparked action that, late last year, resulted in the re-design of the road layout at the roundabout where she lost her life.

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Spurred on by campaigners, last summer Oxfordshire County Council adopted a ‘Vision Zero’ – pledging to end all road deaths on the county’s roads by 2050.

And at Cheney School on Wednesday night, city cyclists’ pressure group Cyclox brought together dozens of would-be campaigners to try and make that vision a reality.

In a statement read to the conference, Dr Felce’s widower, James, called for ‘rapid and determined action’ to stop any further deaths on the city and county’s roads.

“Our children, who were only three and five years of age at the time of Ling’s death, have had to confront an incredibly adult concept at such a young age,” he said.

“The lives they now face are changed immeasurably. They no longer have mummy, despite much pleading for her to return.

“If through the Vision Zero initiative we can stop more families getting broken like this, then that would be a positive change.

Councillor Dan Levy, Amy Aeron-Thomas of London's Action Vision Zero and Dr Alison Hill (Image: Oxford Mail)

“No child should have to hear that their mother or father was killed, pointlessly, just because we could not organise ourselves to do something about this issue.

“I urge you to take rapid and determined action to ensure a future without any further road deaths.

“I know it is possible and want to use the tragic experience of Ling’s death to help you all make that future a reality.”

Originating in Sweden in the 1990s, ‘Vision Zero’ started as an ambition to prevent traffic deaths by re-engineering road systems and layouts.

The goal has been adopted by a number of major cities, including London, where it was introduced in 2018.

The ambition was adopted by the county council last June. Targets were set to cut casualty numbers by 25 by 2026, with a 50 per cent reduction by 2030 and no road deaths by 2050.

A quarter of a million pound pot was earmarked for ‘Vision Zero’ initiatives.

Prof Tao Dong and James Felce (Image: Oxford Mail)

Opening the event on Wednesday night, Dr Alison Hill of Cyclox said she wanted a ‘future without ghost bikes’, the white paint-dipped two wheelers marking the places where cyclists have been killed.

“This whole event is dedicated to the four cyclists who died in the last [three] years: Samantha Blackborow, Jennifer Wong, Ellen Moilanen and Ling Felce,” she said.

Dr Felce’s death at The Plain, coming weeks after Mrs Moilanen was killed in a collision with an HGV near Oxford Parkway station, had ‘shocked so many people and it was a call to action for everybody’.

Oskari Kaupinimaki appeared through video link (Image: Oxford Mail)

Oskari Kaupinimäki, a traffic planner in Helsinki, where road death numbers have been slashed since the 1970s in large part due to redesign of road layouts, told the conference that ‘space’ was an issue in the Finnish capital as it was in Oxford. “We don’t compromise, we make choices,” he said.