THERE has been quite an exchange over the past week about cycling but I'd like to address two aspects of the debate that haven't been discussed which are the pitiful levels spent on cycling and the rubbish that keeps getting built.

Mr Waters (Argus Letters, 6 August) is guilty of ignoring facts when he describes the amounts spent on cycling as 'lavish'.  In reality they are a pittance compared to what society spends on other things.  Building cycle facilities is incredibly cheap compared to building new roads as well as taking far less space and having far less environmental impact.

He is right that there has been insufficient improvement in cycling nationally.  However, he ignores that where safe and convenient infrastructure has been built it has increased the numbers cycling significantly, such as on Lewes Road.

The problem is not so much the weather, but the consistently poor facilities that are built.  The Ikea proposal at Shoreham is a classic example, where sub-standard paths, littered with obstacles and unnecessary road crossings will deter many from cycling as well as putting people walking and cycling into conflict.  It will also lead to the closure of the Sussex Pad, the best road cycle crossing of the A27 for miles around.

The development at Toads Hole Valley is little better with complicated junctions and a failure to provide for cycling alongside the main access route through the development, the one place it is really needed.  It includes a new link to the South Downs across the A27 on to Devil's Dyke Road: a crossing that is sorely needed.  But the developers are proposing something that would be worthy of a challenge for Indiana Jones - five separate crossings, a chicane, a gate and you still may not end

up where you want to be.

The elephant in the room is not the weather which can affect all forms of travel, but the rubbish that consistently gets built. Until that is addressed, we are not going to see much change in the levels of cycling nationally.  I would suggest

that Mr Waters turns his attention closer to home in West Sussex.  They are responsible for allowing and building a lot of badly designed facilities such as they are proposing along the A2300, A259, A284, and A29.  It is not surprising people then don't use

them. And when they do have a good facility such as at Centurion Way in Chichester, they allow that to be put at risk by new housing development.

Change the current mindset and we would see big increases in cycling and less conflict with people walking, with all the benefits that that would bring.

Chris Todd, Brighton & Hove Friends of the Earth

 

Picture by  totalshape.com