Letter: Why we should hail Swampy and friends as patriotic heroes

Sir: Your report on the latest Social Trends publication (30 January) states that "the British remain stubbornly wedded to their cars". This implies that car dependency is something deep in the British psyche. There is no need to be so fatalistic.

As you report elsewhere on the same day, one of the reasons car use has increased in the last fifteen years is that buses have become more expensive, more unreliable and less frequent as a result of deregulation. Car usage depends in part on decisions made by millions of individuals, but in part too on decisions made by government. One reason the Dutch cycle so much, for example, is because a Dutch government decided in the 1970s to improve provision for cyclists.

STEPHEN TINDALE

Director

The Green Alliance

London WC2