Letter: Time to stop dithering and follow Europe's lead in curbing the car

Sir: Your leading article 'Four- wheeled menace can be overcome' (25 March) rightly draws attention to the UK's failure to grasp Sir Colin Buchanan's message of 30 years ago.

The degradation of our environment is a symptom of a wider problem: the failure to recognise that while we (car owners) have been keen to reap the benefits of cheap personal mobility, our towns and cities have been changing to allow us to do so in ever growing numbers at the expense of people who travel by other means (sometimes, ourselves). Car parks, ring roads, out-of-town shopping, loss of homes in town centres: all have been part of the long-term spiral which has turned mobility by car from an attractive option into a necessity for many people.

We must embrace all initiatives that will help to reverse the spiral, bring vitality back into our town centres, and redress the many inequities inherent in car-dependency. Europe provides a model; levels of investment in public transport are high, the idea of paying for road use raises few eyebrows, and pedestrian zones have been commonplace for years. Here in the UK we should no longer pretend these principles are so novel that we need endless research and studies to come to a view about them.

Yours sincerely,

NICHOLAS BURSEY

Director, Colin Buchanan

and Partners

London, W2