Two respondents to my recent letter on York’s traffic management have some interesting viewpoints. Helping the flow of traffic will improve public transport says Ian Foster. I sense a hijacking of the cause of public transport, to make car use easier. Ian also advocates the redrafting of York’s current Local Transport Plan, whose inception he blames 'the previous council' for. In fact the current LTP3 was introduced in 2011 by the then LibDem majority council, and substantially reflected Whitehall guidance on urban traffic management. And an assertion that “traffic needs to flow round a city or it ends up rat running” suggests that a robotic action will occur, about which nothing can ever be done. But let us substitute the word “driver” for “traffic” and suddenly we have humans at the wheel, whose behaviour and travel choices are capable of being influenced.

I agree wholeheartedly with D McTernan that waiting at a red light for ages with no-one around, is not sensible. Getting the Urban Traffic Control kit up to working speed deserves to be tackled quickly. But would getting rid of chicanes and removing bollards make life a misery for residents whose local streets have long been protected from rat running?

The bottom line is that traffic will only “flow” if there is less private car use at peak times. The Local Transport Plan is geared precisely towards that, by widening residents travel choices to achieve further reductions in car dependency.

Paul Hepworth, Windmill Rise, York