Letter: Crowded pavements

Sir: Your recent correspondence about conflicts between pedestrians and cyclists on pavements highlights two issues. First, the urgent need to make cycling safer and more attractive. Second, the equally compelling need to achieve this without reducing pedestrian safety or comfort.

Pedestrians and cyclists would both benefit from less traffic and slower vehicle speeds. This has led many to assume that the two groups are identical and can be lumped together in "shared use" facilities.

Your correspondence clearly reveals that the interests of pedestrians and cyclists are not identical. Bicycles do not belong on pavements. They are vehicles and should be catered for as such, either on roads that have been made safe or on tracks segregated from pedestrians. It is drivers, not pedestrians, whose space and convenience should be reduced to create the safe conditions for cyclists we urgently need.

BEN PLOWDEN

Director

The Pedestrians Association

London SW8