I NOTE the recent rapid response from Liz Edge in support of Steve Helsdon’s pro-car users pleas. Perhaps they are a double act (Letters, October 14).

Some citizens, having bought cars, believe they have also bought the open road; but if they choose to drive to and from York at peak times, that open road never exists.

That does not stop them from insisting more be done to ease their lot. They seem unwilling to consider the longer-term implications of a car owners’ free-for-all.

Transport planners advise that urban local authorities cannot continue to expand road and parking space indefinitely. Successive Governments have managed this via the local transport plan system, where local authorities must develop a five-year plan to promote travel alternatives.

Councils in accord with Whitehall guidance receive grants to implement their plans. That is how York has pushed back the predicted date for gridlock across the city. Residents who leave the car at home and switch to walking, cycling and bus use for peak travel have already contributed significantly to this.

But peak traffic growth has not yet halted or reversed. That must be tackled by the next round of plans, which begin in 2011.

Paul Hepworth, Windmill Rise, Holgate, York.