Oxford police told family it wasn't safe to cycle home from nursery due to "aggressive drivers"

For the road in the picture, if they moved the parking to the right and the cycle lane to the left, it would be a lot safer. Drivers would exit their cars to the pavement and the cars would be in the "door zone" not the cyclists.

There is mention that Warneford Lane has a painted cycle lane on it. It appears that this cycle lane is of little use when cars park on it. This could be easily corrected by the addition of double yellow lines along the length of the cycle lane. Then there wouldn't be the necessity for cyclists to come further into the road to pass the cars and avoid car-dooring. So many cycle lanes around the country are practically redundant as a result of cars parking on them. In some countries, it is against the law to park on cycle lanes, but not here, yet. I have heard mention of a possible change in the law to prevent parking on the pavement. This could make life even more complicated for both the cyclist and the car driver.

Surely the fact that drivers have been taught to read the road and have had to pass a driving standards agency test,  this is to assume driving competancy, means they should reconise a situation before it arises, i.e. family cycling, mirror, reduce speed, mirror move over to overtake at a safe distance, mirror pull back when safely past, speed up.

I honestly believe that the driving issue we have will not change. It isn't the Government or police, it is the average Joe's attitude driving the car that will need to change, due to the selfishness of todays society, look at what has happened with corona, beaches packed, lack of social distancing. The Government clearly stated the rules, but people blatently ignored them. It is wrong the police are telling this woman not to cycle due the dangerous driving, however, I would take the advice from most police (unless traffic)with a pinch of salt, "its my life" not their's.

There is very little chance of this changing,  Accept the risk and get on with it, its not going to change in this lifetime.

Anyone see the blog on here about the police force warning cyclists not to cycle on pavements? The picture chosen to represent this menace was of a mother with a toddler on the back of her bike cycling carefully around pedestrians. Presumably if she'd been on the road they would have warned her of the danger. There's no doubt that most police have the same agenda as most of the public - to get rid of cyclists full stop.

Attitudes really do need to change. 

https://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/news/hertfordshire-news/london-st...
IS IT IN ANYWAY SAFE FOR COPS TO DRIVE ON ROADS LIKE THEY TOLD THIS MUM CYCLING WITH HER KIDS ON A ROAD ???

Fuck me. We've gone from Sweeney and people falling down the stairs type police to victim blaming, can't really be arsed to tackle any sort of problem police within a generation. My local police are utterly shite, can't even show their face at the local bus station which is full of chavs doing burnouts and not social distancing in any way but yet can take pics of a load of litter drunks left and post it on social media telling us all not to litter.....how about tackling it yourself you useless shits since they were there drinking all day. Then again most cops look like Mr Blobby these days so I bought they could catch a spritely chav in some Nikes. 

all i'll say to that is that at my workplace, i pretty much spend half the day driving around a site, and we've got kids of all ages and adults, cycling about. If i see them i drop the speed to 0 if needed. I wait until it is completely safe. Then i go past saying thankyou. I constantly watch my mirrors and do not like reversing the truck im in, as i cant see behind the tailgate where a kid could be. I give cyclists as much space on the road as physically possible, because i know what its like to feel impatience.  If i can do that all ay in a 3.5 tonne truck, then so can the driver of a 1.5 tonne car for just a few seconds. 

the wobbliness tangent has diverted the point

should parents and children ( and even just children ) be able to use a main road in safety - even without cycling infrastructure. 
Obviously yes. 
If they can't, then it needs addressing right away.
The parked vehicles need - by law change - to be out of the cycling infrastructure so that it can be used as intended. 
The drivers on the main roads need to be further educated that the roads are there for everyone's use, and indeed to expect more cyclists that previously. This is only going to head one way. They may even like to try cycling themselves.

Look how attitudes have ( been ) changed over the years: drink driving, recycling, littering, fossil fuels, plastics. What seems normal today, will seem so unacceptable in hindsight. 
I agree with the earlier comment that one day ( soon ) we'll look back at the car era and wonder what on earth we were thinking of back then

At some point in the future, we're going to look back at the 20th and 21st centuries as a crazy era in history when intimidating, murdering, and poisoning the lungs of children was considered acceptable because it meant adults could feel big and powerful in their big and powerful cars. Or to travel to jobs most of which a pandemic has demonstrated are inessential other than to circulate money until it ultimately ends up siphoned off into tax havens. That is if we make it as far as a future without cars, which we might not, in no small part due to all the people who think automobiles are the pinnacle of human development, or who don't think further ahead than the next weekend.

The attitude of the police in this case is indefensible.  They are in charge of making the roads safe for vulnerable users, not condoning and allowing dangerous driving.  I'm glad they seem to be getting so much flak and I hope they'll learn the lesson of not blaming the victim.

Their view is, unfortunately, not just restricted to the police, and many people think that it's your own fault if you dare venture onto the road, not that it is the fault of the people causing the danger.  Fifty years of being told that the car is king, and implying that no-one else should be on the road has clearly had an effect.