Drivers crawled into Oxford this morning as tailbacks stretching the length of the Botley Road, right, caused commuter chaos.

Dennis Johnstone, deputy editor of the Oxford Mail, said his journey from Bicester to Oxford, which usually takes about 20 minutes, took just under two hours. He was finally forced to abandon his car near the Toys R Us store and walk to Osney Mead.

Drivers stuck in traffic on Botley Road

Mr Johnstone said: "The problem was caused by the fact that the traffic lights at the slip road at Botley were not co-ordinated with the temporary traffic lights, causing traffic to bank up back on to the A34."

Temporary traffic lights are in place on Botley Road while Thames Water carries out a ten-week programme of mains improvements.

Police said today they were unaware of the problems being faced by commuters. Spokesman Lucy Ferguson said: "I use the park-and-ride to travel in every day along the Botley Road and I did not notice any real problems other than the roadworks."

She added that police had received no complaints from motorists today regarding the roadworks.