Letter: Pedestrians need rights of way

Sir: Your article "How the peaceful country lanes of old England have been placed on the certain road to destruction" (28 August) paints a dreary picture.

Oh horror, you show a photograph of 10 metres of road in 1930 with no cars on it and a photograph of today of 50 metres of road with three cars and an agricultural vehicle on it.

Of course traffic has grown since the 1930s, as have prosperity and changes in lifestyle. More people visit the countryside to enjoy the birdsong and bees buzzing in the hedges.

The majority travel by car, as it is the most flexible means of getting there. The Council for the Protection of Rural England presents 50 rural routes being ruined by traffic. I could present 100 rural routes where I cycle every weekend that are not.

No one wants to see more traffic in the countryside but half-baked scare stories do not benefit anyone. The RAC has been involved with the Countryside Commission, North Yorks Moors National Park and Oxford Brookes University looking at practical traffic management measures to ease the pressure of cars in the countryside.

Let us look to practical solutions rather than emotive statements about the evil of cars.

EDMUND KING

RAC Head of Campaigns

London SW1