Doesn’t it get your goat when a local authority’s attempts to solve a problem that never existed, would have been better left un-“improved”?

The other night I was driving around the ring road when I had to brake suddenly. In front of me was a large metal barrier blocking the road. To negotiate the barrier I had to stop, get out of the car, push it around a zig-zag chicane and then jump back in again.

Car drivers were the lucky ones. Long trucks and anything with a trailer were stuck, unable to turn through the chicane.

The barrier was unlit and unlike other barriers of its kind, it did not have reflective strips or even yellow and black lines painted on it to increase its visibility.

I saw a driver brake hard and swerve, avoiding the barrier but crashing into a ditch.

People who remonstrated about the barrier were told it had been erected to stop vehicles entering a roundabout too quickly and endangering the occasional cyclist who might be crossing the roundabout at right angles.

If the council did anything as foolish as installing chicanes across a busy highway, motorists would be up in arms and the local media would weigh in to stick up for the poor downtrodden British motorist. Sadly for us, nobody has got that worked up about an obstruction just installed on Barracks Lane in East Oxford – a.k.a. National Cycle Route 5.

Barracks Lane is a busy cycle track and footpath that links Cowley Road with Hollow Way.

At its junction with Bartlemas Close, there used to be a couple of metre-wide gaps between bollards.

Cyclists could pass each other in either direction, or let pedestrians use the other gap. Last week, railings were erected across the end of the cycle route leaving a single, narrower gap.

It is a completely unnecessary inconvenience.

It is dangerous because it is new and unlit, and there are no warnings, nor yellow/black hatched reflective markings as on a similar barrier on Meadow Lane.

It was fine as it was. Staggered bollards are a much better “solution”, but if it stays, there should be a two-metre minimum gap between the fences to comply with DfT guidance.

Cyclists who complained about the new facility were told that local councillors demanded it to “create a safer environment for all road and footpath users in Bartlemas Close due to the speed of cyclists exiting Barracks Lane”.

As a daily user of this junction I know this was not a problem. I recently cycled behind someone as we approached the new layout. He stopped, twisted through the bend, and went on his way. As I did the same, a red-faced man staggered wheezily down Bartlemas Close in front of me. I gave way to this much larger road user who swore about the first cyclist “nearly knocking me over by going too fast”. The cyclist had barely got beyond walking pace and passed nowhere near Mr Hate Cyclists.

It really is incredible the vitriol that some can muster against poor cyclists. More’s the pity that poor workmanship can create a problem where one had never existed.