I started to write this column about love, peace and understanding on the road. Feeling the anniversary of the summer of love a year early, I was going to suggest a concerted effort for us all to get along just a bit better.
I'd made a vow to blow kisses at drivers performing irrational manoeuvres in front of me. It feels so nice being on your bike in the sun that sometimes it is hard to stay cross for long.
That was all before I heard about the recent spate of attacks on cyclists. Rural Oxfordshire seems to be targeted at the moment. About half a dozen cyclists have been pushed from their bikes by people in passing motor vehicles. Some of the injuries have been horrific. That people do such things for kicks is incomprehensible.
Cyclists are used to verbal attacks. I see daily examples of people quoting ridiculous statistics on cyclists jumping red lights and cycling on pavements. Attacks on cyclists were commonplace where I lived in Hackney. There were frequent warnings to avoid streets inhabited by groups of youths with air rifles, elastic bands and other weaponry. The distinction between these attacks and the south Oxfordshire attacks is the perpetrators' age.
That the attacks in Oxfordshire seem to be carried out by adults is really depressing. Do these people think that seeing someone fall off a bike is funny? Whatever the reason, they are downright dangerous. I really hope we've seen the last of these incidents and that the police manage to find those responsible.
I left all my worries about cycle attacks behind me at the weekend, though, to go the Cowley Road carnival and do my stint on the Cyclox stall. Being on the stall is a great way of getting to meet other Oxford cyclists and hear their views.
Despite being a stall about cycling at the food-themed carnival, we still got a lot of interest. After all, what better way to get around Cowley Road when it is closed to cars? Two wheels, of course. It was so nice to see the diverse shops being experienced by the carnival crowd. The carnival brought back a bit of the peace and love I'd been looking for when I started writing my column.
Maybe Oxford could do with a cycling carnival to share the love around a bit more. We could all decorate our bikes with flowers. There could be a two-wheeled fancy dress competition. The major energy source? Pedal power, of course! There could be displays of interesting bikes and opportunities for people to try out bikes that they hadn't ridden before. There could be stalls selling all kinds of different cycling paraphernalia - trendy bike bells, cool helmets, gloves with the softest padding known to man. Cyclists could come from far and wide and swap tales of perfect cycle rides, the comfiest of gel saddles and the smoothest of gears.
This weekend would be a perfect time for such an event, with both the London to Oxford and Birmingham to Oxford bike rides ending in our city on the same day. So, some food for thought; let's have a cycling festival in Oxford and celebrate one of the truly great things about our city!
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