Letter: Only cycling leads to a cleaner, greener city

The thing is we’ve never been asked if we wanted out streets to be choked with traffic and pollution and our roads crammed so full of parked cars there’s no space for anything else. Yet this is inflicted on us daily.

Worst of all our streets are perceived to be so unsafe that many parents won’t let their children travel independently. They then end up driving them everywhere, making the problem worse.

But it’s not just children that are affected. Most adults feel it is too dangerous for them to cycle.

That’s the society we’ve created where those without a car, some 40 per cent of city households, are effectively excluded from using many streets.

The experience of the first lockdown showed us what life could be like with fewer cars. Quieter, cleaner, safer and more pleasant streets where people were able to reclaim some of the space that cars have monopolised in recent years.

If we believe in fairness and want a better future for our children and grandchildren then we need to reconsider how we share space in our city.

We need to make people feel it’s safe and pleasant to walk and cycle, and easy to catch a bus.

We need to make it a no-brainer that these are the first choices for getting around the city but the car is there as an option when needed.

Just focusing on a cycle lane in Old Shoreham Road, or anywhere else, is missing the point.

On its own a cycle lane will never get a lot of use unless it is properly connected into a network of safe streets.

That’s not what we have in Old Shoreham Road at present, but the potential is there, particularly with all the schools nearby.

Just look at how much nicer cities around the world have become when they have given people the freedom to move around without having to drive.

Surely that has to be the future and we’d be silly not to want some of that, wouldn’t we?

Chris Todd Brighton and Hove Friends of the Earth Hollingdean Terrace Brighton