I am constantly outraged at public transport prices. When I’m in charge of this half-baked country – and one day I surely shall be – public transport will be totally free.

Until then, I’ll be more than happy to rely on the bike rental system that the council is trialling.

Like similar schemes in Paris and Barcelona (and Reading), the council is proposing a bicycle rental system available to anyone and probably free of charge for periods of up to 30 minutes.

Given the size of the heaving bikopolis that is Oxford, this means that all one-way journeys will be free. What could be better?

Before waxing too lyrical, let’s not forget there are more important things that the pilot money (£100,000) could have bought.

Creating a coherent “dual network” and providing masses more cycle parking are much more important than bikes as public transport.

The pilot must be on a large enough scale to make it possible to judge the probable success of a full-size system.

Of the two options the council is considering, either a 12-month pilot based on 130 bicycles or an 18-month pilot based on 90 cycles, I’d put my money on the shorter of the two.

The final scheme should only go ahead if it has a guarantee of future funding beyond the pilot budget (bike rental schemes aren’t self-funding) and if we can expect to see real improvements on the ground.

Otherwise, the scheme risks being a gimmick.

The rental bicycles will check in and out of automated “docking stations” sited every 300m or so around the city centre, and out at university, hospital, and park & ride sites (creating a Park & Cycle facility).

There is a disgraceful dearth of cycle parking in the city, so sites for docking stations will need to replace existing car parking.

Having said all this, I’m actually excited about the pilot and I’m convinced it’ll succeed. If Oxford were any other 150,000-population south-eastern town, then maybe a rental scheme wouldn’t take off, but in Oxford the number of potential users will result in a workable operation.

Visiting academics and business people, many of whom might be cyclists anyway, will no longer need to struggle with bikes or Bromptons on trains and buses.

Residents who already cycle might like to use the bikes for one-off journeys to destinations where they don’t want to leave their own bike, for whatever reason – I know I will.

People who aren’t regular cyclists or who don’t own a bike are likely to be occasional users, too.

And tourists will welcome seeing Oxford for an afternoon from a two-wheeled perspective.

If we see a 20 mph city with greatly reduced bus movements in the centre, a rental system could flourish.

Bikes would become the city’s cheapest form of public transport, perfect for quick, carefree, congestion-free cross-town journeys.