Mr Musey derides and does not accept the UK’s approximate £1,500pa subsidy per car met by wider society (“Make better use of what we have”, Opinion, September 3).

He may have more robust findings than the EU wide, extensively researched paper undertaken by the University of Dresden, but until it’s published I’ll go with what is available, comprehensive and referenced. Of course, such data won’t be exactly accurate; it does, for instance, exclude the on-costs of congestion and any links to obesity-related health costs that replacement exercise could help alleviate, but I’m not expecting it to be more than 100 per cent wrong as he would imply.

The other challenges, as with so many over the past months, come down to space: extra space allocation for parking and car movement rather than any other available land use and investment options.

That is a policy choice and it seems clear where the Government, GLA/Transport for London, and London boroughs are pointed.

Indeed, the world’s longest segregated cycle route, costing tens of millions of pounds, cutting 18 miles east to west through the centre of our city, removing parking and road space on the way, was announced on the same day Mr Musey’s letter was printed.

It is perhaps worth reflecting more carefully on air quality. The London Assembly’s health and environment committee reported man-made microscopic airborne particles as being responsible for between six and eight per cent of all deaths in London boroughs.

At that level it almost certainly means an impact on someone each of us knows personally. As a consequence, they recommended cycling targets well in excess of those now being followed by Enfield Borough Council.

So at a basic level, the equation being long debated on these pages could perhaps be summarised as: make room for ever more car miles and die early; or drive less, walk and cycle more and help everyone live longer.

K Brown

Old Park Road, Palmers Green