As you leave Brighton station car park via the concrete ramp and drive down the hill, you arrive at a set of traffic signals where the only legal option is a left turn.

To your right is a pelican crossing which, at peak hours, is obviously very busy but which is not really fully in your eyeline.

Under normal circumstances this would not be a problem.

However, it becomes a dangerous problem if you decide to make an illegal right turn which, in the stressful world of traffic-calming measures designed to frustrate rather than facilitate traffic flow, is becoming all too common.

Then a crucial factor comes into play.

The pelican crossing is phased on the assumption that the right turn prohibition will be obeyed and the green "walk" light is lit at the same time as cars pass through the downhill signals to turn left.

One morning, for the third time in as many days, I saw a commuter make the illegal turn and almost mow down a pedestrian crossing the road.

The mutual look of horror at what had almost happened illustrates the dilemma at the root of the system.

To base traffic schemes on the assumption that drivers will obey prohibited-turn signs is no longer possible, as increasingly they do not.

It is only a matter of time until someone is killed and the life of another person destroyed because of a moment's impatience.

I recently experienced these dangers myself. I was crossing the road while the green man was illuminated when a car coming down the hill made the illegal turn and passed close to my heels.

When I remonstrated with the driver as he was passing, I was subjected to a tirade of foul language, in the utterance of which the driver almost lost control of his car.

This response to admonishment is, sadly, the norm in Britain today.

Even more worrying is that when drivers do make illegal manoeuvres such as this or ignoring a red traffic light, they tend to speed up to avoid being seen rather than slowing down which is what they would probably do in a dangerous situation that was not of their own making.

I do not pretend to know the solution to these problems, but felt it my duty to draw them to your readers' attention.

-Simson Dalton, Brighton