Oxford could be transformed "in a generation or two", like Copenhagen, if cycle infrastructure were introduced each time road works were carried out, say campaigners.

The comments came after Oxford City Council announced a £110,000 vision for 40 cycling improvement schemes over the next two years, with suggestions they work with the local roads authority, Oxford County Council, to spend £10 per person per year on cycling by 2020.

Oxford County Council received Cycle City Ambition Fund money from central government in 2013 and then again in 2015, but campaigners have questioned its project choices, to improve one Oxford roundabout at a cost of £1.3m and build a cycling and walking bridge in the city. They say these will make little difference to everyday journeys and a different, more integrated, and cost-effective approach to cycling is needed.

 – A bridge too far? Oxford campaigners say Cycle City Ambition cash being "misspent"

Graham Smith, CTC Councillor for the South East of England, said: "In a thirty or forty year span [give or take], every main route in Oxford is likely to be rebuilt, going on the evidence of the last thirty odd years. 

"Were there a real political pressure to find a way, each piece of road renewal and of course road construction, could provide for cycling for all." 

"Instead of useless dotted lines for cycling, we could have segregated continuous provision…the city could be transformed in a generation of two, just like Copenhagen."

Smith claims, instead, most recent road works have "made cycling conditions worse", and believes it would be much more cost-effective to combine cycling improvements with ongoing road maintenance.

Among Oxford City Council's wish list of cycling improvements, with a budget of £110,000, are improved signage from the Plain roundabout to the Kassam Stadium, and spending £5,000 to remove one-way restrictions for cyclists on two roads. A new crossing and new cycle route between Marston Road and Headington Road are also proposed.

Ian Leggett, of the Oxfordshire Cycling Network, has been critical of the council's past cycling schemes, and says too often cycling is not seen as a viable means of mass transit, and so joined up thinking is lacking.

He calls the new Oxford Parkway station, part of a new £130m London-Oxford rail link, a missed opportunity for cycling by the county council and despite 100 bike parking spaces he claims access to the station by bike is poor.

He says: "Everyone knows that the existing station is hugely popular with cyclists so you would think they would have integrated improved infrastructure to make the new station really easily available to cyclists from North Oxford and Kidlington. But no, nothing has been done and a huge opportunity has been missed."

He added the £1.3m changes to the Plain roundabout aren't going to help most people feel safe cycling in Oxford.

"We worked really hard to persuade the council not to waste money on a scheme that is so insignificant and piecemeal – but they would not listen. And just recently, out of the blue, they won more central govt funding for a second cycling city ambition grant – but for a scheme that not a single group in the county has heard of or wants."

Leggett wanted to end on a positive note, however.

He said: "Over the last couple of years we, as cycling organisations, are getting better at working together and coming up with truly integrated, ambitious and transformative schemes. If anything is to get the council to be more responsive it will be because of pressure from below."