By coincidence, I witnessed both recent Critical Mass bike rides. They take place on the last Friday of each month.

In April, I was Cycling home from work past The Level when I encountered them and, last Friday, I was on a bus when the cyclists were being escorted down Montpelier Road.

What struck me on both occasions were the extraordinary number of police present.

Many people complain you never see a policeman, yet your article (The Argus, May 30) mentions 12 officers (plus a police van and two police cars) escorting 20 riders.

Of course, the cyclists were making a protest, for sustainable travel and against the domination of our streets by the car, but if 20 people want to cycle together it is perfectly legal to do so.

Is this intimidating response appropriate? The police are notoriously auto-centric but really need to review their priorities.

The problem is certainly not 20 cyclists riding slowly once a month around the centre of Brighton even if they did annoyingly delay the bus I was on.

The real problem comes from cars speeding, dangerous driving, double parking and, close to my heart, parking on bike lanes.

Before allocating scarce resources to anything else, the police should demonstrate they can tackle these problems first.

-Adam Pride, secretary, Bricycles (The Brighton, Hove and District Cycling Group) www.bricycles.org.uk, Foredown Drive, Portslade