BRIAN Roberts is still waiting (Letters, May 22) for news of a planned link road between Heworth Green and Layerthorpe, presumably to “relieve” standing traffic and congestion in the vicinity.

But would building this road offer a long-term solution? The phenomenon of “induced traffic” has increasingly been accepted by the Transport Planning profession.

This states that while building a new road may have an initial benefit, its presence eventually encourages many additional car journeys that might otherwise have either not been made or made by other means. The end result is that instead of “jam tomorrow” we end up with even bigger jams tomorrow.

It might be more sensible for a link road to be incorporated into priority measures for public transport and cycling, and perhaps only allow drivers of multiple occupancy cars to use it.

Such measures alone will enable York to achieve the overarching goal of its current Local Transport Plan, to further reduce car dependency. No city in the world has been able to build its way out of congestion, and York is no exception.

Paul Hepworth, Windmill Rise, Holgate, York.