Why oh why...

Why oh why are there so few bike racks in Oxford?

Not only do cyclists have to contend with taxis parked in cycle lanes, those Oxford Tube monsters thundering past and pedestrians walking out right in front of us (yes, hello, I'm actually quite fast you know and it's going to hurt me a lot less to hit you than to fall off trying to avoid you), but when we get to our destination there's nowhere to park!

How many people do you know who ride a bike in Oxford?
And how many have had a bike stolen? (Or, if they have a particularly awful bike, like some of my friends, maybe they've had their lights/lock/helmet stolen)

So many shops have no bike signs outside. This is fair enough, but some take it a little too far, like the Angel and Greyhound where an angry man leapt out to yell at me for leaning against the railing holding my bike while my friend popped into Subway. It defeats the point of cycling if you then spend 10 minutes trying to find somewhere to lock up your bike.

That said, it's quite entertaining seeing the gravity-defying bikes halfway up the railings outside Sainsbury's on Magdalen Street, and I can't help but snigger at the sight of the dominoes effect outside Exam Schools on the Hight Street when some hapless student tries to extract their bike from the back of the pile. It happens to the best of us.

So Oxford council: If you're listening, please put up some more locks! We're lazy at heart and we deserve a break if we can survive the death traps of central Oxford bike lanes.