York's title as Britain's most cycle-friendly city, has proved to be detrimental to local cyclists.

Taken in perspective this was the result of one (now defunct) cycle magazine's survey and is now ten years old.

York, like any town or city, is a dangerous place to cycle. Winning this dubious title merely invited the cycle haters and baiters to claim no more need be done to encourage cycle transport. It also encouraged complacency amongst some agencies.

As your correspondent, Mr Poole, rightly pointed out (Letters, August 23), city centre access from many points involves travelling alongside heavy, polluting traffic. Ring roads, roundabouts, and cycle lanes alongside main highways are known to be extremely hazardous to cyclists yet these dominate traffic planners' ideas.

Any comparable continental city has better facilities and more intelligent consideration of cyclists' needs; cycling being considered a viable means of transport fully integrated into all aspects of urban life, not merely an after-thought grudgingly provided to merit status as tenuous title-holder.

Andrew Gough,

Ashwalk,

Strensall, York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.