In reply to Mr Hughes (‘Bikes and cars are simply tools’, Opinion, July 2), the Highway Code contains sufficient advice and the law on how to behave on the road.

If everybody obeyed its instructions there would be fewer road casualties. Pedestrian crossings give precedence to pedestrians, not motorists. They are designated safe places to cross roads, in particular pedestrians with mobility problems.

Mr Hughes’s vision of wobbly children on bikes talking to each other on roads with traffic horrifies me when they should be concentrating on their riding. Even 20mph would not protect them from a collision.

Mr Hughes keeps pressing for universal 20mph, but it was recently reported that casualties in 20mph zones rose 29 per cent last year and injuries in 30mph and 40mph fell nine per cent and seven per cent in the same period.

Mr Hughes’s description of how cars impact on the society since its invention is absurd. How can it be anti-social and undemocratic when 30 million people, including Mr Hughes, own one for the pleasure and convenience when it gives? How can it destroy town centres and shopping areas when it brings trade to those areas? What does he mean by children’s independence and what age group? The car is only dangerous in the wrong hands.

GA Musey

Mitchell Road, Palmers Green