According to Brighton and Hove city councillor Ian Davey the new, improved Lewes Road cycle lane has seen a 14% increase in the number of cyclists using it (The Argus, March 26).

I often wonder why national and local politicians are so keen on pushing out statistics to prove their case when they do no such thing.

Statistics are meaningless when they are not accompanied by facts. Without the facts, taxpayers have no idea if their money has been spent wisely or simply wasted.

In the case of this cycle lane the public still do not know if the number of users increased, for example, from 1,000 to 1,140, up a mere 140, or from 5,000 to 5,700, up by 570, still not a particularly large number bearing in mind the high cost of the lane.

Who knows? Nobody knows and no one will ever know unless the council releases the actual numbers, the numbers they needed in order to come up with the figure of 14%.

I would also be interested to know if the lead member for transport can produce facts, not statistics, indicating the decrease in cycle lane use when the weather is decidedly against two-wheeled transport: pouring rain, strong winds, snow and ice, etc.

If he is not sure all he has to do is sit himself down in Lewes Road by the side of the cycle lane and count the number of users – once on a fine day and once on a wet and windy one.

I often walk from Lancing to Worthing and back and have come to the conclusion that there are definitely two types of cyclist: the normal ones, who ride normal bikes and, invariably, stick to the cycle lane beside the beach, and the “professionals”, who tend to wear tight shorts, ride bikes with drop handle bars and narrow tyres and keep their heads down.

The latter clearly believe that use of the cycle lane, provided for their benefit at great cost, is beneath them and insist on riding on the road, even though it puts them at risk of being knocked over by other road users.

Eric Waters, Ingleside Crescent, Lancing