OCCASIONALLY a motor vehicle driver will find themselves unintentionally marooned in a pedal cyclist's "green box", due to a combination of slow-moving traffic queues and lights changing to red.

However, most motor vehicle drivers who enter the green box do so deliberately. I have seen many drivers enter this area, when they had plenty of distance to stop at their own white line.

In the peak periods, this manic desire for a quick getaway, allows the motor vehicle driver to arrive at the back of the next traffic queue ahead a few seconds earlier, ie their overall gain is nil. I cannot avoid a wry smile, as I inevitably pedal past them again. Rather like the tortoise and the hare!

The city's traffic lights are all computer-linked, and cannot be beaten.

Cyclists can assert themselves by deliberately stopping in front of offending vehicles in the green box, and making a slow getaway when the lights change to green. I often do this.

Before any reader mentions road tax, let me remind them that the only road in York which this funds to any extent, is the Highways Agency's A64 bypass. All other roads within the city boundary are financed by the City of York, including former A-roads, all of which have been detrunked. The money for this comes from council tax, to which motorists and cyclists both contribute.

Paul Hepworth,

Windmill Rise,

Holgate, York.

Updated: 10:35 Monday, October 10, 2005