YOUR recent article on the proposed 20mph zone around the Epiphany School in Muscliffe is a perfect example of the blinkered approach to road planning blighting UK roads.

Trying to enforce a 20mph limit using speed humps does not make the road safe as it does little to prevent rat-running and makes the road unpleasant to use for everyone.

Look at Victoria Park Road, for example.

The speed bumps have not stopped motor traffic using it as a cut-through and consequently the street is still not a safe, pleasant place for kids to live and attend school.

Even Shillingstone Drive itself already has some ‘traffic calming' which does nothing to deter this behaviour.

What is needed on Shillingstone Drive is filtered permeability.

Make the road impossible to use arterially except for buses, bicycles and emergency services.

It costs little (a few no-entry signs and minimal road building) but in one fell swoop would turn this hazardous area into a residential zone used only by vehicles driving to and from its houses and facilities.

This approach has been used extensively in northern Europe with great success.

It benefits the whole community not just from reducing traffic problems but increasing social cohesion and creating a nicer environment to live and work.

Cheap, simple, effective and no speed bumps.

Isn’t that what we all want?

MIKE CHALKLEY, Cowper Road, Bournemouth