It is a little-known fact that Witney has the highest level of cycling in the county. I’d thought that the 20,000+ cyclists who throng Oxford every day would put the city firmly at the top of the list. But no, Witney enjoys three times the national average of journeys by bike, and that number is increasing.

Intrigued, I cycled over to investigate.

It took me just over an hour to ride 14 miles from East Oxford to the centre of Witney, but my average speed is abysmal. There is quite a culture of cycle commuting from Witney to Oxford, and practised commuters can knock 20 minutes off my time.

In June 2005, Cyclox organised a so-called Commuter Challenge from Witney to Oxford. Usually, such challenges would take a typical cross-city route, from, say, Cowley to the railway station. Of course, the bike would always win hands down. They were a bit worried that the Witney–Oxford ride would make the bikes look slow.

Four cyclists, two car drivers and a passenger on the number 100 bus left Witney’s Market Square at 7.45 am. The first cyclists arrived at Carfax 40 minutes later. They’d taken the Swinford toll bridge route via Eynsham, which isn’t as relaxing as the A40 cycle path/Woodstock Road route, but it’s shorter (12 miles). The car driver on this route took 54 minutes to reach Carfax.

On the A40/Woodstock Road route, the cyclists took 41 minutes, the bus passenger 54 and the car driver 56 minutes.

This was at congested commuting times, but, even so, I was impressed. The journey over to Witney seems like a long way, but when you actually do it, you’re past Cassington and then the Boot pub before you know it.

There’s a cycle route all the way to Witney. It’s pretty good, though you should watch out for blind spots behind the bus shelter advert hoardings, plus debris and occasional untended plants encroaching onto the path.

The roadworks on the A40 caused problems last year, but the contractors, Costain, were very quick to respond to problems caused when cycle crossings were temporarily removed. There’s even an A40 ‘BUG’ Bicycle Users’ Group (contact On Yer Bike for contact details).

In Witney, I met a member of the newly-formed Witney BUG (witneybug@googlemail.com), which aims to make it easier to get around Witney itself, as well as along popular local commutes to large employers such as Siemens, along the A40 in Eynsham.

We looked at the fairly decent cycling corridors across the Windrush and Cogges. The routes across the Marriott’s development will also be good when finished.

The council’s school travel plan team has done well to encourage large numbers of children to cycle to school, but your average cyclist is likelier to be grey-haired than wearing a uniform.

The single biggest boost for cycling would be a 20 mph limit, the biggest problem in Witney being that drivers always seem to be in a hurry. They’ll overtake you even if you’ve pulled into the middle of the road and are indicating to turn right.

Slower speeds would make it much easier for cyclists, and might encourage many more to dust off their old bikes.