I cycled to the train station the other morning past a wall of buses roaring along Queen Street. Thankfully the drivers didn’t attempt to run me off the road by driving straight at me – as has happened on too many occasions in the past.

Removing the buses from Queen Street is dead right. The heaving masses of metal with their choke of diesel fumes have despoiled the street. It’s amazing that a single shop still trades there.

Although the council and bus operators appear at loggerheads about the timing of the withdrawal, there’s no question now that it will happen. Hallelujah! I’ll never understand why the buses were allowed to overstay their welcome for so long. Why on earth didn’t the council propose this solution 20 years ago?

Currently, the street has two busy traffic lanes, one with buses stopped and another with buses overtaking the stopped ones. Bikes are restricted from 10 am till 6pm as it’s so busy – dangerous, potentially – with buses.

For the next year, the buses will cruise slowly along Queen Street but they won’t stop. After the necessary re-routing, and bus stop changes have been made, buses will cease to use the street altogether.

So, what about bikes in the medium and long term?

One effect of not having buses stopping will be a much wider carriageway. While three modes is a crowd, there will be ample room for pedestrians and cyclists to mingle and merge safely once the buses have gone.

This is why it makes most sense for the restriction on bikes in the street to be completely lifted, both in the medium term (while buses are using the street without stopping), and in the long-term (post-buses).

Queen Street provides a vital east–west route for cyclists and its reinstatement as an all-hours route for bikes is very important indeed.

There’s a popular notion that bikes are a menace to pedestrians. This is, in reality, a gross misconception.

Although there is undoubtedly a perceived risk, there is no precedent of cyclists killing or seriously injuring pedestrians in Oxfordshire. It is motor vehicles that do the damage.

Although some pedestrians fear bicycles, they’d actually be a lot better off if they kept their eyes on cars, buses and lorries, which do kill and injure.

Looking at Transform Oxford as a whole, lifting the restriction on cycling in Queen Street will lay important foundations for successful shared space environments for cyclists and pedestrians across all of central Oxford.

The council should allow bicycle access to Queen Street in both directions 24 hours a day in preparation for a wider future implementation of shared space in the city.

The best way to do this, while the street still has buses in it, is to reintroduce bikes as an experiment to check that it works. It will work. Then, when buses are removed altogether, both pedestrians and cyclists will have grown accustomed to each other, and the presence of bikes will be expected and tolerated.

Having no buses will make the environment cleaner, more spacious and safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

To coincide with lifting of cycling restrictions in Queen Street, we should promote a ‘Bike Polite’ campaign for Oxford. Read up about it at www.politecycling.info/index.html