Are cycle lanes just a waste of space?

I AGREE with criticism of the fashion for cycle lanes (Mail). One such lane was created along a road in Ickenham, West London, ten years ago, yet a friend of mine who regularly uses that stretch of road says he has yet to see a cyclist using it.

NEVILLE WITHERS, London W3. PARTS of the Uk that have started to invest in cycle lanes are at the start of our long-term journey to become a more active and healthy nation. Building a cycle lane isn’t a silver bullet and it would be misguided to expect these lanes to be full 24 hours a day. But 70 per cent of people, including drivers, surveyed by British Cycling support building cycle lanes alongside main roads. The Uk has a pollution and obesity problem that cycling is helping to tackle, and two-thirds of people say they would cycle more if they felt safe.

Dame SARAH STOREY (Britain’s most successful female Paralympian), CHRIS BOARDMAN (British Cycling’s policy adviser), ASHOK SINHA (chief executive of London Cycling Campaign) and XAVIER BRICE (chief executive of Sustrans). TOM RAWSTORNE’S criticism of cycle lanes is misguided (Mail). There is no better answer to London’s congestion problem. One lane of a typical road can carry 2,000 cars or 14,000 cycles an hour. By enabling more people to cycle safely, cycle tracks make highly efficient use of road space. The east-west superhighway is regularly at capacity during rush hours, which was precisely its aim. We need a full network of safe cycle infrastructure to see a rise in trips made by cycle for various purposes at various times of day. Despite a growing population, car traffic is falling in Central London, and since the cycle tracks were built, there has been a 60 per cent increase in cyclists on those routes. Had they not been built, what means of transport would these would-be cyclists be using?

DAVID MURRAY, Cycling UK, Guildford, Surrey. CYCLE lanes are fine in cities — but out in the countryside? I recently took my family from wetherby to filey on the yorkshire coast. The purpose-built cycle lane on the A64, which runs for more than 30 miles, had only one cyclist on it.

TOM BESTON, Wetherby, W. Yorks.