ccolborne

You’re perfectly entitled to ride on the road regardless of other facilities and nobody has the right to yell at you for it. That said, being abusive and a total ar$e probably isn’t a serious enough offence to have the Saab driver fired.
However, I would also balance my need to keep moving against the needs of a whole line of traffic when a good alternative is there for me, for the minor inconvenience of the odd stop at a junction. I do know that when I pull over on a busy road to let a stuck lorry past, the look of amazed gratitude on the driver’s face gives me a warm cosy feeling!

I seem to be in the minority who prefer off-road paths, and always use them unless unbearably rough. On-street paths often get abused by vehicles, parked or moving, especially swerving into my path around other cars waiting to turn right!They can also quickly get cluttered with glass and other debris where they don’t get swept by passing traffic. I heartily agree that the access to many paths is a disgrace, with stupid dog-legs and bad kerbs, poorly sited signs etc. A lot of road designers seriously need their heads banging together! But for the most part the ones on campus are not too bad. I have requested that prominent walk / cycle symbols are painted at regular intervals along the Fermi Ave path so that even the most gormless pedestrian in auto-mode with phone and earplugs, who won’t hear your warnings, should realise where their bit is. My request was favourably acknowledged – we will see.

I agree with both of the above. I feel that the new island is not given adequate advance warning for the unwary, and it is not lit . The cycle lane is quite narrow, so if there are no cars I just whizz down the main lane. When there is traffic about, it’s inevitable that the pinch-point will put it in conflict with cycles more than before.

I have another concern which affects both cycles and vehicles – at the junction at the top of the hill there are non-skid surfaces on each lane, but they do not overlap at the middle and the angle of the junction is such that making the turn, one inevitably crosses sections of road without this surface, where skidding is more likely. A couple of extra metres of non-skid on each lane would be a major help.

I think the situation may be temporary, to appease residents during the period with excessive traffic while the other route up the hill is closed for the junction work at the bottom. Once this and the link road to Didcot are complete, there was a plan to permanently close the Upton bit to through traffic (apart from access and cyclists) and have a controlled crossing at the top for us to get through all the new traffic the link road will generate. Does anyone know if that is still the case, or are OCC content that the island is sufficient mitigation for the residents?

Chris