As chairman of Cyclox, I’m often asked how Oxford compares with other cities, why cycling is so popular here at all, and what the future holds. The answer to the first question is easy, to the second tricky and to the last — until recently — underwhelming.

How do we compare?

I love that feeling of arriving back in Oxford by car. You’ve been in some godforsaken bikeless place yet as soon as you get inside the ring road, dozens of bikes glide past — on a good day, hundreds — and you know you’re home.

Ask anyone anywhere what they associate with Oxford — chances are ‘bicycles’ will be a close third to the university and the Oxford English Dictionary. Rattling doughtily over Magdalen Bridge, chained en masse outside the colleges, commuting three-abreast along Cowley Road — for 100 years bikes have formed a part of this city’s DNA. While cycling nationally has tailed off since the 1950s, in Oxford we never really stopped.

The 2011 census shows 20 per cent of Oxford workers commute by bike. Only Cambridge has higher rates, with about 35 per cent of commuters cycling. An unrelated leisure survey (also 2011) found that 30 per cent of adults in Oxford cycle at least once a week. That’s more than 35,000 regular riders, plus thousands of under-18s. Few UK cities have a fraction of this level of cycling.

Why do so many in Oxford cycle?

Well, take me: I have bikes, a car and can even afford bus fares if I budget carefully. No matter where I picture myself in the city, given a choice of bike, bus or car to get home I’d go by bike every time. It’s quick, it’s free — and it gives me a buzz.

A ride from East Oxford into central Oxford can be sublime, pootling through South Park, taking the cycle path across the Marston meadow and past the university science area. There are at least a dozen similar carefree, car-free routes in the city, routes that riders of any age and confidence can enjoy.

Much of the main road network has cycle lanes of varying quality, but Oxford stands out because of low vehicle speeds and driver awareness. If drivers themselves don’t cycle, they’ll have friends or family who do.

It is in marked contrast to, say, Birmingham where cars drive fast and where cycling can feel like a game of dare.

Bikes are a part of Oxford’s fabric. Save a few grim stretches along Cowley Road and under Botley Road railway bridge, it’s easy to forget just how good we have it here.

And it’s impossible to imagine how Oxford could function without bikes. Paralysed, unless perhaps if they built an underground.

What of the future?

Cycling has increased 18 per cent here in the past decade, despite chronic under-investment and the absence of a cycling plan. Cycling muddles along in the wake of major projects, mainly bus schemes or piecemeal developer contributions.

Until recently, I’d have predicted more of the same: a slow, steady increase. But the proposed tsunami of cycling in London makes me realise Oxfordshire can –— could — shift up a gear or 10.