THE numerous factual inaccuracies aside, the saddest thing about many – if not all – of the letters attacking cyclists and cycling infrastructure is their consistent venom bordering on hatred.
Arguments, such as they are, are intemperate and display a striking lack of nuance.
Whilst it is possible to engage in reasoned debate as to the pros and cons of changing traffic priorities, the writers are not interested: they appear concerned only with denigrating others.
With what amounts to either astoundingly poor self-awareness or an unwillingness to face inconvenient facts, they blame cyclists and cycling infrastructure for pollution and congestion, never once accepting that cars, not bicycles, pump out pollution (air and noise) and take up the vast majority of road space (often for only one person per vehicle).
Reading such ill-thought-out tirades can be dispiriting to a certain extent, but in the end, they are probably borne of the writers’ frustration at a world changing inevitably around them.
CONOR NIALL O’LUBY
Throop Road, Bournemouth
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