HAVING worked in the town centre for more than ten years, I was interested to read about alleged speeding buses at the junction of Parliament St and Coppergate (Speed worry on the corner, May 21).

I have witnessed the odd mishap and countless near misses at this junction, but rather than heap all the blame on bus drivers, I would question the road sense of the general public.

People saunter across this junction oblivious to the fact that it is a main road, and cyclists are allowed to use this street all day long but most people do not even look for them.

There is a perfectly good pedestrian crossing serving this junction yet people just ignore it, not realising that traffic uses Coppergate from four directions. If people choose to ignore safety aids then they deserve to get their fair share of close calls with traffic.

As for the bicycles that have been clipped by vehicles, why lock them to the outer side of a fence on the roadside?

Come to think of it, why lock them to the fence at all? The fence is there to protect pedestrians, not provide shop workers with a convenient bike rack. How many people have had their ankles rapped by protruding peddles as they have passed locked bikes?

PR Willey,

Burnholme Drive,

Heworth,

York.

Updated: 11:18 Monday, May 24, 2004