DAVID NEAL of Huntington commented adversely (Letters, March 29) about the “always deserted, car-size cycle lane” alongside the A1237 between Haxby and Wiggington.

This is because it does not open until the middle of this year. The eastern end requires a new bridge span over the York to Scarborough railway, and associated earthworks.

Placing a bridge over an operational railway requires a weekend engineering possession of the tracks by Network Rail.

The route is not being funded directly by City of York Council, but from its grant from the Government’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund.

Much of the three-year expenditure is being concentrated on York’s northern quadrant, where there is a history of high car use for short local journeys.

Rather than being what your correspondent described as a two-fingered salute to motorists queuing on the A1237, it will encourage the use of two wheels for more local journeys. That in turn will create more road capacity for essential car journeys.

Paul Hepworth, Windmill Rise, York.