In reply to Roger French's correspondence (Letters, August 2), I would like to set the record straight.

I wrote that the emissions from buses are worse than from cars, meaning they are more harmful for an equal quantity of emissions. I did not write buses cause more pollution than cars.

Obviously, there are very many more cars than buses so they will cause more pollution.

Mr French wrote only 1 per cent of atmospheric pollution over Britain comes from buses and coaches, with 56 per cent by cars.

As there are a lot more than 56 cars to every bus on the road, this just proves, as one would expect, that a bus will produce more pollution than a car.

In towns, the percentage of buses to other vehicles is very much higher so the percentage of pollution caused by them is too.

The density of the population is also higher in the towns so more people will be affected by them.

I did not suggest all trips across town should be made by car. Cars and other vehicles are usually travelling from one town to another or passing through.

The fact that buses carry more people in less space is irrelevant as these other vehicles still have to travel.

However, they are delayed by bus lanes restricting the available road space. It is sheer madness that a long line of traffic cannot get past an obstruction by using a bus lane.

What I was suggesting was, by limiting the use of bus lanes to rush hours, general traffic flow would be increased.

I realise it is not entirely up to Roger French but I would be interested to know if he would be in favour of the idea.

-Chris Gould, Georgia Avenue, Worthing