I FIND it incredible that someone with the obvious intelligence of Paul Hepworth can believe the “statistical” balderdash that building new roads increases car usage.

Not being a car driver, he doesn’t understand that a car owner won’t just get in his vehicle because there is a new, easier route.

Continuing to make life difficult for the driver will only increase congestion and pollution, as has been proved by the policies of successive councils over the past 30 or so years.

However, I agree with him in that car travel must eventuality, for various reasons, drastically reduce, but this will only happen in the near future if an alternative is offered, ie, an efficient, comprehensive and affordable public transport system, which cannot exist at the moment with these disastrous anti- traffic policies.

Buses are also victims of these measures, if journeys were quicker and on time, so many more people would use them.

Sorry, Paul, I know you’re in love with pedal power, but the vast majority of us can’t and won’t go back to our school days of freezing to death on a push-bike.

D McTernan, Fossway, York.