Danger spots

Without doubt, Oxford's worst location is the area around the railway station. Frideswide Square, the junction and bus interchange outside it, is ultra-confusing with too many traffic lights, turn lanes and bus/cycle-only sections. Even if you know what you're doing, the guy turning across your path probably doesn’t. But worse is what lies past it: the Botley Road tunnel under the railway, where all this traffic is funnelled into a dark, narrow dip. We don’t like to say it, but be assertive and claim your lane.

Just east of the city centre, The Plain roundabout is busy and bus-filled. Thousands of cyclists negotiate it each day, but keep alert. Oxfordshire County Council has received grant money to improve it for cyclists, though the jury is still out as to whether their plan will actually help.

The Cowley Road, Oxford's most colourful and varied shopping street, starts here at The Plain; it's long been a free-for-all, though traffic calming measures have at least made it a little less frenetic.

Take care too in the northern suburb of Summertown, where the High Street is too narrow for comfort and traffic is stop-start.

From Headington

You can’t dodge the climb of Headington Hill, but you can avoid the busy road. Oxford University has opened up a permissive route across the University Parks; combined with recent improvements to Jack Straw’s Lane, it makes a lightly-trafficked quiet route to the city centre. The route can be impassable when the Cherwell is in flood: check with this useful page.

Cross-town: east-west

Getting across the city centre without hitting a pedestrianised street takes experience. From east to west, follow Sustrans routes 51/57 via Broad Street. The highlight is New College Lane, a delightful hidden lane round the back of colleges. Take care at Magdalen Bridge and the Plain, where all the roads from East Oxford converge.

Cross-town: north-south

With Cornmarket Street closed to cyclists, Sustrans route 5 provides the easiest and safest north-south route, skirting the centre along New Inn Hall Street.

Around the county

Oxford might be bike-minded, but sadly that's not true of the rest of Oxfordshire. In big towns like Banbury and Witney, only the newer housing estates have any provision for cyclists; there’s rarely anything to get you into the town centres, let alone across them. Cherwell District Council, in the north of the county, has a nasty habit of pedestrianising useful roads and banning bikes from them.

Bicester, which has expanded rapidly in recent years, is better with a couple of useful town centre routes. South of Oxford, there's a good cycling culture in the Harwell, Milton and Didcot area, where science companies attract bike commuters from Oxford.

There’s some lovely rural cycling in Oxfordshire, particularly in the Cotswolds to the north and west, and the Downs south of Didcot. Busy roads, country estates and the River Thames can make it difficult to get from the city to the country, though: our map will help you find a way through.