IT WOULD be very easy for many people to take one-dimensional views over the £1m plan to reshape The Plain in Oxford to make it safer for cyclists.

Today funding has been confirmed for a scheme to change the layout of the busy roundabout and, like so many announcements of this nature, it is likely to polarise views.

On one hand, the cycling fraternity will embrace it as one (admittedly small) change to a road system that puts their safety to the fore.

But many motorists will view this as a waste of money, designed to make traversing the junction as part of their journey even more difficult.

But we would say the changes really go to trying to address – through road design – the heart of the relationship between cyclists and motorists, because elements in both camps seem unable to coexist voluntarily.

It would be difficult to argue the case for spending £1m at The Plain purely on the basis of accident figures. There have been 29 reported injuries to cyclists in five years.

That’s not a figure to disregard, but then put it in context: If 8,500 cycle journeys are made through The Plain between 7am and 7pm each day, then over those five years there have been almost 15.5m journeys – meaning there is only a reported injury accident once every 534,000 cycle trips.

But what this scheme really tackles is not so much a road layout made dangerous by its design but rather the mindset of road users. By narrowing the road, you are essentially forcing everyone – cyclists and motorists – to pay attention to what they are doing and shutting off the road space to make reckless decisions.

However, it is impossible to force meaningful change in riding and driving behaviour by physical design across our whole road network.

Ultimately making the roads safer comes down to us all. We have some phenomenally arrogant drivers who disregard the rights of cyclists to use the road and we have a militant cohort of cyclists with a victim mentality – and both sides just aggravate the situation.

The Plain is just one small scheme but hopefully its implementation may lead to a proper rethink about relationships among all road users.