I WAS concerned to read the letter from Mark Davey (July 5), where he appears to have identified a potential flaw in the design of the Old Shoreham Road cycle lane.

Recently, I spent a few days in the Huntingdon area of Cambridgeshire. On one occasion, I drove my car to a free council park and ride location in nearby St Ives and took a bus on the dedicated 16-mile Busway route, which utilises a disused railway track, running through the countryside down to Cambridge.

I noted running parallel to the Busway, along the entire route, was a very impressive cycle lane. Apart from a few controlled road crossing points along the way, buses and bikes rarely come into contact with cars.

This proves that a well-designed and safe system can work for all.

With regards to the zeal of Councillor Ian Davey and his comrades’ plans for more cycle lanes in Brighton and Hove, I would simply say: square peg – round hole.

Brighton and Hove is already constructed to a tight-knit design and, unless the Greens achieve their real objective, which is the removal of all motor transport from the city, large-scale urban cycle lanes are simply not going to work well here.

Saying this, sensibly located longer-distance cycle lanes are an excellent idea, and Britain will surely expand in the future.

I have to ask a key question: after construction, who is going to pay for cycle lane upkeep? The magical “funding” money tree at the end of the garden cannot be continually relied on.

Trevor Alford , former Conservative councillor, New England Rise, Mile Oak