THE poor reviews of the ftr clearly must have made Coun Ann Reid see red; given her fetish for "green signals", this must have caused her great distress.

So she announced that only people who had used the ftr were really entitled to review it.

I suppose she would therefore agree that only people who own 4x4s are entitled to have an opinion on 4x4s.

It is not only the people who travel on a vehicle that are affected by it, but also those who live on its route and those whose path it crosses.

Any vehicle has an impact beyond its users.

The impact on non-users is pollution, in the same way as smoking affects non-smokers.

The transport emissions causing most concern in York are NO2 emissions. The main source of transport-related NO2 emissions in York is heavy-duty diesel engines: HGVs and buses, not cars.

Two examples from the council's own figures (*) illustrate this: in Lawrence Street, 25 per cent of NO2 emissions come from buses, 18 per cent from HGVs and 21 per cent from cars. On Holgate Road 23 per cent of NO2 emissions are emitted by buses, 17 per cent by HGVs and 19 per cent by cars. The reason why HGVs and buses are the main source of NO2 emissions these days, and not cars, is advances in engine technology.

The same kind of advances one would have expected from a vehicle claiming to be the future of public transport, yet increased fuel consumption and emissions coupled with reduced seating over standard buses should signal a red light towards the ftr.

Oliver Starzynski,

Murton Way,

York.

(*)Sources:

City of York Council, Local Transport Plan 2006 - 2011, Annex U, Air Quality Action Plan (Page 9/10) http://www.york.gov.uk/environment/airquality/AQAP2/Annex%20U%20Air%20quality%20Action%20Plan.pdf

Updated: 11:51 Friday, May 19, 2006