JOHN Armstrong (Argus Letters, August 10) asks me when did I last cycle or drive in London. When I was cycling or walking in London last year I saw many people cycling. At other times when I have driven, I’ve seen fewer.

In a sense, Mr Armstrong answers his own question about why he didn’t see many people cycling the other week. He points out that there was one road that has a two-mile stretch of cycle lane on the journey he took, but in his own words: “it usually just has cars parked in it”. Therefore, it’s not much use to people wanting to cycle is it? And that was my point with the analogy about the Amazon Forest. Would you expect to find much wildlife in the Amazon Forest if you had driven all the animals away by cutting down the trees?

The same with people cycling. Would you expect to see many people cycling if you’d driven them away by the speed and volume of traffic on many busy roads? If you don’t provide a safe environment for people to cycle (a single two mile cycle lane with parked cars doesn’t cut it) it’s not surprising you don’t see them.

He also calls myself and others deluded for trying to prove the car is not the primary source of transport in the UK. Yet I’ve never said this nor seen anyone else argue this either. However, what many people are calling for, including the Government, is a reallocation of road space to enable more cycling.

Chris Todd Planning and transport campaigner Brighton and Hove Friends of the Earth