Almost to a man, the shock jocks are up in arms against her. The Murdoch press is relentless in its attack of her vision. The conservative state government, an allay of the shock jocks and the Murdoch press, is trying hard to muzzle her by legislation. She can no longer be a state MP and a city councillor at the same time. She gave up her lower house seat in order to hold on to mayoral office.

I am sceptical of the local politicians in Oxford are going to dive in and stick up for the bike riders. It takes a very bold politician to do so.

The road surface leaves something to be desired in many places, and the cycling infrastructure is pretty limited, but if we got rid of the through routes, at least for cars, that would both reduce vehicle traffic and provide room for proper cycle paths. Yes, some car drivers will scream about road closures, but they must have done that when Cornmarket and Queen St (and High St during the day) were closed, and there's no complaining about that now.

Sydney is not a model we want to be copying! It has had years of appalling under-investment in public transport, with huge sums spent on roads to funnel more cars into the gridlock. Oxford should be looking to towns like Groningen and Basel for models.

I hardly knew Oxford at all, I don't qualify to pass comments on the city's layout. Road closures are never popular, some of the pedestrian malls in Sydney are re-opened to motor traffic. The congestion tax is ok for London, but Oxford is too small to justify such a tax. The populace mightn't take it too kindly.