Having surveyed cycle routes and produced cycle maps for most of the cities in your cycling guides this week, I have been intrigued by your writers’ observations. The overall impression, backed up by my own experience, is that urban cycling is fun and enjoyable – if you know your way around. Otherwise, cities designed for the car are pretty unpleasant.

This is the sharp end of green politics. And the government’s efforts to support cycling – like the rest of its transport policy – are an underfunded mess. Local authorities do their best against ministerial indifference, but only in places such as London, where Ken Livingstone has put money where his mouth is, are things happening and cycling levels increasing.

Since Steve Norris there hasn’t been a minister responsible for cycling with the sharpness to realise that cash spent on cycling yields disproportionately large dividends. Good facilities are relatively cheap, quick to introduce and universally popular. That’s leaving aside the health benefits, the positive effect on congestion and their own small contribution to good policy on climate change.
Martin Whitfield
Director, Cyclecity Guides

Your guide to cycling in Edinburgh had no mention of cycling on the roads; it was all about off-road cycle routes – even for the “commuter”. The cycle paths mentioned are of scant use to the daily commuter and only perpetuate the notion that cycles do not belong on the roads, a delusion suffered by too many motorists. We don’t need more cycle paths or lanes, or to be told that’s where we belong; we need a shift in attitude to encourage all road users to respect one another.
Fiona Hourston
Edinburgh

What about the millions of mums and grannies who buy the cheapest, least attractive machines (to deter thieves) and tootle out every day for the shopping or to work? (Not everyone can afford two £80 locks.) I have a basket on the front for the shopping and one on the back for whatever I pick up that needs recycling or putting in the next bin. And what’s this about punctures? I haven’t had one for around 20 years, thanks to Greentyres. I am on my third set; when the tread is worn off the firm recycles them.
Marion Bolton
Middlesbrough

Zoe Williams’ article (Urban cycling: a survival guide, March 5) reminded me of the dangers of cycling on pavements. I am a doctor and an urban cyclist. I used to bend the rules as much as possible cycling to work and would nip up on the pavement to escape the exhaust-spewing monsters on the streets. Until, that is, I worked in A&E. In one week we had three elderly ladies brought in with broken hips (which carries a risk of mortality), all knocked over by pavement cyclists.
Dr Matthew Lowe
Bristol

The advice to cyclists to keep to the left on roundabouts is primarily for their own safety. Zoe Williams’ claim “But you have rights!” brings to mind the cautionary verse: “Here lies the body of Jonathan Wray,/ Who died maintaining his right of way./ He was right, quite right, as he bowled along,/ But he’s just as dead as if he’d been wrong.”
Michael Ponsonby
Emsworth, Hampshire

Jon Snow clearly has a death wish. There he is (Guardian Guide to Cycling, March 3) in grey hat, grey jacket and grey trousers, on a grey bike with a grey bag, cycling along in a grey-ish urban location. Jon! We can’t see you! I’d expect the leading light of the CTC to be brighter, and ditch the camouflage. Being mistaken for Adam Hart-Davis is a small price to pay.
Mike Lewis
Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire

Where are the mudguards in your cycling articles? Do your cyclists really want to arrive at work, pubs, shops with wet backsides! And what about baskets, panniers and racks to carry briefcases, shopping etc, used by cyclists of all ages here.
Margaret Juett
Cambridge

It was disappointing that the Guardian Guide to Cycling had no reference to tandeming. Interested readers can visit our website at www.tandem-club.org.uk.
Bernard Williamson
Tandem Club

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