Harry Atherton has written expressing concern about the number of cyclists that will attend the CTC York Rally in 2000 with some remarkable calculations about the space needed (Evening Press, March 18).

I don't know where Harry has been but he has obviously missed the years in which 20,000-plus cyclists have gathered for the annual two-day rally.

Probably the case, because 20,000 non-polluting, quiet vehicles take up less space, cause less congestion, noise, pollution and policing than a small race meeting or the visit of the Pope, all of which Knavesmire handled easily.

The CTC is delighted to award the major event of one of the UK's most inclusive Millennium celebrations to York for the very reason that the people and council of the city appreciate and share our celebration of the greatest British invention of the Millennium.

Kevin Mayne,

Director, CTC,

Meadrow,

Godalming,

Surrey.

...WE are led to believe that numeracy skills have been progressively getting worse since the advent of number crunching machines.

I had no idea it had reached such levels until a contributor to your 'readers letters' column stated that it would take 50 square miles to accommodate 50,000 cyclists if two square yards were allocated to each of them.

Now it's more than 65 years since I learnt to count but I now calculate that this number of cyclists could be accommodated on Knavesmire ten times over. The 50,000 times two square yards could be fitted into an area only 317 x 317 yards which I estimate is not much bigger than the Racecourse Stand area.

While we are on the subject of silly ideas, how many cyclists would be prepared to do their shopping at Clifton Moor? The City of York Council thinks it may be thousands by their suggestion that special access for cyclists should be considered, and to prove this I presume they are spending the rate-payers' money on a feasibility study.

My mind boggles at the thought of cyclists wobbling around the A1237 loaded to the gunnels with six or more Tesco bags hanging on their handlebars, plus a 26-inch television from Comet strapped to their rear wheel carrier for good measure.

Just where do we get these people with these sort of crazy ideas from?

I suspect they are from the same stable as those that insisted that a 1,000 space car park will be built at the murderous junction of the A19 and the A1237 at Rawcliffe.

Come back Margaret Thatcher, all is forgiven.

Guy Jefferson,

Ings View,

Shipton Road,

York.

...Mr Atherton provides clear evidence of the decline in basic numeracy skills by claiming that 50,000 cyclists occupying two square yards each would require an area greater than 50 square miles to assemble for a rally.

As long as a mile is still 1760 yards, a square mile will total 3,097,600 square yards providing over 61 square yards per cyclist.

Perhaps the rally will also provide an answer to Mr Patterson's problem - (Readers' Letters, same issue) although quite how, given the level of congestion on the streets of York, he gets his car up to a speed where a collision or other incident cannot be avoided stretches one's imagination to the limit.

Steven Rawlinson,

The Lilacs,

Main Street,

Shipton-by-Beningbrough,

York.

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