OH DEAR here we go again, another attempt to resurrect that infamous Old Shoreham Road cycle lane.

The letter from Ms Pascale says "the lanes brought overall no detrimental effect". Well, perhaps she never noticed the tailback of vehicles at traffic lights all pumping out exhaust fumes, causing even more of the pollution she rightly hates.

Now without those cycle lanes traffic flows relatively freely, the fumes no longer apparent.

She mentions children cycling to school, well she might like to consider how much usage the cycle lanes had, allowing for the fact that schools are open on only five days per week for about 39 weeks per year. I would estimate that the time for a cyclist to go to school and back is roughly 45minutes, so the percentage of the total time that the cycle lane is being used for school journeys as compared with the availability of the cycle on an annual basis is very small.

She conveniently forgets that this road is one of the main arteries into and out of Brighton and Hove,bringing in both goods and workers from outlying areas as well as residents going to work.

I happen to live opposite the Kingsway cycle lane which goes west from the King Alfred and the only time it is anything like busy is on sunnny weekends in the summer.

There is a myth perpetuated by the cycling lobby that all you need is to build more cycle lanes and cyclists will rush out to use them. Not so, bearing in mind our climate, the usage of cycle lanes will always be minimal and mainly recreational, and the money spent by the council constructing them could be much better spent elsewhere.

As for quoting what happens in London she should also bear in mind that some cycle lanes there have been removed.

If she wants cyclists to be safer on the road she should try persuading them to read the Highway Code, not go through red lights at pedestrian crossings or traffic lights, not cycle on the pavements and to have proper lights on their bikes so that they are visible at night.

Jeff Stanford

Kingsway

Hove