IT is amazing how certain councillors could claim that Mr Evely's case on traffic impact at Derwenthorpe was robust (Letters, February 2).

His case is as reliable as his malfunctioning "intelligent" bollards.

Mr Evely likened the roads of the four access points to the proposed development to plastic cups.

Explaining that these are three-quarters empty, he said if one added just as much traffic again, the cups would still not be full, and would therefore be capable to take the anticipated traffic growth.

While it is true that these roads are now quiet, residential roads and the expected traffic load would not push them immediately over their theoretical design capacity, surely an analysis of the affected highway network does not stop there?

But that is where Mr. Evely's analysis of the affected highway network stopped dead. How unhelpful.

A short journey from Osbaldwick Village to Tang Hall Lane will show how Mr Evely's cups will begin to fill up and spill over.

We are setting off at the Village Hall (a three-quarter empty cup), then we turn right into Osbaldwick Lane, where the traffic volume will immediately quadruple. A cup that was just three-quarters empty is, in one instance, almost full.

We complete our journey at the Tang Hall Lane junction where the traffic load will have increased tenfold. This time, Mr Evely's cup is not just full, it is overflowing.

That is another way of saying that a road/junction is operating above it's design capacity.

The results are traffic jams and pollution.

Oliver Starzynski,

Murton Way,

York.

Updated: 11:34 Saturday, February 05, 2005