Worthing a black spot on cycle network

SIR: I was saddened to read last week's letter under the heading, "Are cycle lanes the product of Fatty Two Jags?" What a pity the author had to resort to a borrowed personal insult to get their point across.

Paying car tax and petrol tax is expensive, but this confers a privilege to be used responsibly, not a right to use the road at the expense of everyone else.

There are a lot of people in Worthing who drive a car but also use the buses and trains, walk their kids to school whenever possible and, if they are feeling especially brave, cycle to work and to the shops.

As every lollipop person running the gauntlet of Worthing's traffic twice a day will tell you, irresponsible road users form a dangerous minority which includes cyclists and pedestrians, but by far the most lethal are motorists.

Losing your life in a road traffic accident has become the modern way to die and yet we delude ourselves that we can carry on using our cars as we please without paying for the consequences.

Two cheers for the cycle lanes appearing belatedly and somewhat haphazardly in Worthing. These do not go nearly far enough to address the problems facing the town as the boom in population results in heavier road traffic.

Worthing sticks out like a sore thumb on the National Cycle Network map because despite being one of the richest towns in the South-East we haven't had the foresight to invest in a proper cycle lane along the seafront to link in with the rest of the Network.

Brighton and Hove credit the townspeople and their families with enough intelligence to Use a combined footpath and cycle lane, so why can't we?

The forbidding "No Cycling" signs on the seafront path and the threat of moving the Aquarena out of town speak volumes for the lack of commitment to creating a clean, healthy town to live in and visit for families who don't want to view this seaside town through a car window.

Cycle lanes are there to take reluctant motorists off the road and leave it to those who need to use it Until this happens in Worthing, I for one am prepared to forgive the cyclist who takes refuge on the pavement from heavy mad traffic as long as they give way to pedestrians.

I only hope that if one of my children makes the potentially fatal mistake of stepping off a Worthing pavement in front of someone without looking, they confront a cyclist and not a 'tax-paying' motorist with attitude.