As a Brighton resident until 2005, I was aware that the town was becoming car unfriendly. It had been two years since I last visited Brighton when I returned for eight days this month.

I arrived at about 6.30 pm on December 3, driving down Coldean Lane to join the A270/Lewes Road which is now down to one lane as a result of a bus lane introduced on the left side of the road. With the traffic moving at the speed of the slowest vehicle and often coming to a halt, it took 15 minutes to reach Bear Road during which time no bus passed me in the bus lane although several white vans did.

As a result of this lack of use of the bus lane, I kept a check on the number of buses which passed me using a bus lane during my visit. During my eight days, I covered over 900 miles of which about half of it was around Brighton. The first bus passed me after I had been in Brighton for 47 hours and only six more passed me in the whole of my stay.

Not only is the construction of bus lanes a complete waste of resources, it defeats the objective of environmentalists. Traffic at standstill is far more polluting than traffic moving at a sensible speed. This equally applies to the ridiculous imposition of the 20 mph speed limit and the speed bumps which cause stop/start traffic and is far more polluting than steadily moving traffic. Furthermore, there are enormous additional economic costs to slow moving traffic and the council is only adding to those costs. Then there were the number of roads which are no longer accessible causing many of journeys to be longer and the lack of parking causing me to drive around in circles looking for a space. None of this is very green.

It’s not as though public transport is cheap. When I checked costs, it was cheaper for me to drive to London than use the train and the time was little different.

Brighton and Hove City Council needs to get real. Cars are here to stay and the council should learn to accommodate them sensibly.

It’s a pity I no longer live in Brighton as I would organise bus lane protests where, on certain days, cars would clog up the bus lanes in such large numbers that it would be impossible to prosecute them and the council would be forced to come to their senses.

John J Duffy