With the Tour de Yorkshire capturing even the most cynical commentator’s imagination, we can safely claim it is peak cycling season.

The enthusiasm for two-wheels is ubiquitous. “Can we go on our bike, daddy?” is the first thing my toddler asks any time a journey out of the home is suggested. “Our bike.” And so we have been venturing further afield on “our” bike, a sturdy Dutch Gazelle with a Co-Pilot rear-pannier toddler seat.

In Oxford, if you have time, you can get almost anywhere avoiding routes shared with motor vehicles. Our weekday trips to the outdoor heated pool at Hinksey are an unbridled joy. We glide along the river towpath though the centre of our bustling city – but it’s as peaceful as if civilisation’s 100 miles away.

Visiting the circus in University Parks is similarly a breeze from East Oxford, through South Park and Headington Hill Park and across the meadow with its sunbathing bulls at Marston to the great cycleway around the edge of the university science area. A safe, seamless journey – a pleasure.

The trick with toddlers and bikes is staying safe. Knowing that most cycling collisions involve being rear-ended and that junctions are the danger spots helps me to plan safe routes for us – but even apparently safe routes have their Achilles’ heels.

Regular visits last week to the JR took us along Warneford Lane and past Brookes, along cycle paths and back roads to a bike-only entrance at the top of the JR site.

Recently repaved Warneford Lane has newly painted cycle lanes in both directions. Perfect, you’d think, except that the carriageway is narrow and the cycle lanes go straight through the door-opening zone of all the parked cars. A truly dangerous design, installed despite the council being advised before it was repainted that the lanes could be sited on the right-hand side of the single-lane carriageways, taking cyclists out of the door-danger zone.

Anyone who’s had children know that the terrible twos are characterised by constant “Why” questions. “Why are they going so fast?” she asks of the cars on Morrell Avenue, which has a higher than average cycle collision rate despite the 20mph limit. “Why is it going so fast, Daddy?” she asks of a van doing 35mph along Gypsy Lane. Everywhere cars pass too close and too fast. If she understood, she’d welcome the police clampdown on speeders in the 20 zones.

“Why are there too many cars, Daddy?” she asks as we pass stand-still traffic over Donnington Bridge, on Cowley Road, in Headington. If she understood, she’d welcome a congestion charge to reduce the chronic traffic, with its dangers and its pollution, that she endures every day.

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