I am a fan of Choccywoccydoodah. I buy and recommend their products because I have done the research – admittedly, not a hardship!

But research doesn’t only apply to chocolates – it also applies to getting the most effective transport for our city.

Unfortunately, there are many assertions but few facts in Christine Taylor’s Soapbox article (The Argus, May 8).

The result is that she falls into the same trap as many other retailers – namely, over-rating the importance of the car to their business.

In fact, a study in Graz, Austria, which was subsequently repeated in Bristol, found that retailers overestimated the number of customers arriving by car by almost 100%.

What Brighton and Hove needs are measures to support those who patronise the city’s shops without having to use a car – particularly as 38% of households in the city do not own a car.

So it is simply untrue to state that “public transport will only be the travel of choice for families without cars”.

Before asserting that we need to unleash more cars into the city, it would be advisable to check the research, where studies show the following:

• Making places better for walking can boost footfall and trading by up to 40%;

• Good urban design can raise retail rents by up to 20%;

• International and UK studies have shown that pedestrians spend more than people arriving by car;

• Comparisons of spending by transport mode in Canada and New Zealand revealed that pedestrians spent up to six-times more than people arriving by car;

• In London town centres in 2011, walkers spent £147 more per month than those travelling by car;

• Increasingly, landowners and retailers are willing to pay to improve the streetscape in order to attract tenants and customers.

Turning Brighton and Hove into an unsafe, traffic-choked and pollution-blighted “car friendly” city is not the answer to the challenges facing retailers, who need to appeal not just to motorists but also to people who come by bus, on a bike or by foot.

More evidence to show the importance of un-motorised shoppers can be found in the independent report on The Pedestrian Pound, commissioned by Living Streets.

And finally, as Christine Taylor knows, owning and running a car costs a lot of money – an average of about £3,500 a year. What a waste, considering how much chocolate that would buy.

Stephen Young, chair, Living Streets, Brighton and Hove group