I have not always been the safest of cyclists in Oxford.  This is the land of 10,000 bikes.  Everyone rides here, and as a result, the rules are not always (hardly ever?) followed.  And with sometimes dire consequences.  Last May, a student was riding through the intersection of Broad St and Parks Rd (and Holywell St and Catte St, as they all change names there) when he was hit and killed by a rubbish truck.  No word on whether he ran the light, but I thought it certainly gave pause for those of us who pass through the intersection each day, especially with the thousand flowers that were put there, and then the white bike that was chained to the light pole.

So it was with some sadness that I read in the Oxford Mail today:

In May, plain clothes police officers spotted 93 cyclists jumping red lights in Broad St only weeks after student Tsz Fok died while cycling at the junction.

All of them - including a mother with a two-year-old son on her bike - were handed £30 fines.  Then, in June, police revisited the same junction between Broad St and Parks Rd and fined 78 people for jumping lights."

That tidbit was a corollary to the main article about a breakdown on cycling on the main pedestrian streets in Oxford yesterday, of which my friend Susan had the unfortunate luck to be caught and framed on the front page of the paper.  From experience, I know it’s hard to stop for lights, to stay off Cornmarket during the day, and to wear a helmet and lights.  But I have also had my fair share of accidents (one bus and one taxi in the 5 years I’ve been here, plus a number of cyclists, one just last night).  The laws are indeed there for a reason, and they seem reasonable to me.  I hope the fines have made an impact on the cyclists around here, and I encourage the police to keep up the patrols.