Letter: Pedalling into trouble

Sir: Well done, Christian Wolmar ('I'll break any law to stay alive in the saddle', 31 March). As a campaigner in the London Cycling Campaign and a cyclist, I am well aware of the pressures on cyclists to break the law to save themselves from motorists and to circumvent the road schemes which local and national governments implement without taking the needs and requirements of cycle traffic into

account.

Wearing a helmet will do nothing to reduce cycle accidents or correct unsafe behaviour on the roads, so the Government's campaign to encourage the practice is really rather irrelevant; its energies would be better directed at more positive measures of which there are many, including those Mr Wolmar mentions - separate cycle paths, traffic calming, incentives to use public transport and disincentives to use cars, particularly in city centres.

Yours faithfully,

COLIN NEWMAN

Barking, Essex