Sir – I have recently taken to my bike to commute into work, mostly as I was driven insane by the gridlocked traffic in Oxford and the unpredictability of arrival times at work. A great decision for a host of reasons.

However, after weeks and weeks of mess and muddle at the Plain roundabout and countless thousands of pounds the improvements are anything but.

The Plain roundabout is even more dangerous for cyclists than it ever was and no doubt maddening for car and bus drivers.

Cyclists have to launch themselves from the bike lane entry point in St Clements, pedal and steer into the middle ( who knows – there are no road markings) in order to navigate towards Magdalen Bridge. In doing so they run the gauntlet of cars turning up the Iffley Roadd and into Magdalen School.

The is-it-a-pull-in-or-not-a-pull-in brick set up outside Sainsbury’s is used by lorries delivering and coaches dropping off and collecting school children, which means cyclists pull out of bike lanes to go round and then find themselves nowhere useful if they want to go up St Clements.

The addition of bike racks outside Sainsbury’s – good, a thumbs up, but big thumbs down if you are a pedestrian as the lorries park so close to the racks the pathway is rendered useless.

Whoever thought these arrangements were a practical solution to the death trap that is the Plain deserves a wooden spoon the size of the roundabout.

Don’t even get me started on the cycle lanes from and to the Green Lane roundabout.

Tessa Shaw
Wheatley