IT'S great to see "bendy buses" on the streets of York, having seen them abroad for many years, (April 14). Let's hope they will cut queuing time.

But a better way to do this would be to change the way you pay to ride on a bus. How about multiple-trip tickets which passengers stamp themselves? Or selling discounted tickets from machines at the Park & Ride, local shops and post offices to encourage people to buy them before they get on the bus?

These all save time when boarding the bus and work well in other countries.

Richard Ogden,

Moorland Road, York.

...I CYCLE to work every day along the busy Hull Road and Walmgate into York. Many times I have been forced to pull on to the pavement, forced into the wrong lane at a junction or dragged along in the back-draft of a speeding Park & Ride bus.

Much to my horror, I read that the Grimston Bar Park & Ride scheme is to take on the wondrous "bendy buses"

What extra training have the drivers had to enable them drive these huge vehicles? Will their vision of cyclists be impaired even further with a bus double the average size?

I hope the safety of cyclists is reiterated to the Park & Ride drivers because this would make my life, and many other cyclists' lives, much safer.

Laura Stagnell.

Siward Street, York.

Updated: 10:51 Thursday, April 17, 2003