I AGREE with A Logan about cyclists riding without lights ('Peril on the footpath', Letters, December 16).

My husband has had 47 years driving experience with the RAF on fire engines, buses, lorries and taxis.

So I have to assume it is due to the experience and careful driving that there are a lot of cyclists out there still living because of it, and not at all down to their disregard for their own lives.

As my husband's passenger, I have lost count of the many individuals who have suddenly loomed up, out of a dark night or morning without lights and wearing dark clothing.

Do they have a death wish?

I don't drive but, if I did, I am sure that I would have by now, been responsible for skittling a few cyclists over - and who would have been to blame?

However, there is another phenomenon of late that is peculiar to cyclists and highly dangerous to pedestrians. This is throwing down of their bikes, right in front of shop doorways, while they go in to buy goods, leaving the next customer to clamber over the cycle to enter the shop, or fall over it on exiting.

This little manoeuvre is usually and frequently executed by the baseball cap brigade, outside corner shops. What is it about this type of headgear, that usually heralds bad behaviour and total disregard for the safety of others.

Mrs W Carter,

Marston Crescent,

Acomb, York.

Updated: 11:11 Wednesday, December 22, 2004