CYCLISTS and bus drivers are being urged to work together to make Oxford's roads a safer place.

Cycling group Cyclox launches a DVD called Bikes & Buses on Tuesday, June 10, aiming to show that cycling on the city's roads can be made dangerous by bus drivers - but also that cyclists themselves need to be more considerate.

Cyclox chairman James Styring said the DVD was split into two parts.

The first, called Trading Places, sees an experienced bus driver cycling along Cowley Road for the first time. Mr Styring said: "He felt invisible and incredibly vulnerable."

An experienced cyclist is then given the chance to drive a bus and discovers how difficult it is to control a large vehicle and look out for cyclists at the same time.

The second part, called In Their Own Words, features cyclists and bus drivers talking about the problems they face on the road.

Mr Styring said Cyclox was inspired to make the DVD by the problems caused during recent roadworks in Cowley Road. He said: "Things got really bad. Cyclists were all over the pavements. They felt bus drivers were pushing them off the road.

"There was such a sense of animosity and we wanted to defuse the situation.

"Nothing scares a cyclist more than the whoosh of air when a bus passes too quickly and too close and nothing annoys a bus driver more than a cyclist swerving into the bus's path without signalling or even looking."

Latest figures suggest about 20,000 people cycle in Oxford daily.

Cyclox is hoping Bikes & Buses - made in association with Stagecoach, the Oxford Bus Company, Thames Travel and the Oxford Mail - will make journeys by bike and by bus safer.

Mr Styring wants bus companies to use the DVD as a training aid for drivers and for the second part to be screened in cycle shops.

Louisa Weeks, operations director for Oxford Bus Company, said she was delighted to have worked with Cyclox on the project. She said: "Watching out for other road users, especially cyclists, is an essential part of the training all our drivers receive.

"The strength of our working relationship with Cyclox is that it enables our drivers to hear what concerns cyclists and for cyclists to hear what concerns our drivers."

Bikes &Buses will be officially launched on Tuesday at the Regal club, in Cowley Road, at 6pm, with a panel discussion between cyclists and bus drivers. All are welcome.