Bike is a healthy cure for car addiction

I AGREE with John Fitzgerald (Letters, May 26) about the high cost of car addiction (though I admit that at times they can be useful things).

In the past three years I’ve cycled slightly more than double the distance my wife’s car has done – something like 30,000km, most of which has been going to and from work, which currently is a 60km round trip.

My bikes together have cost me considerably less than her car did to buy, and much less to run. I might get to work slightly slower than car drivers, but I don’t have to work to pay for the privilege of driving. This I can tell you is very liberating financially. And I get to enjoy the weather, which is rarely as bad as people think and certainly can be coped with.

I think the problem is those in decision-making positions – politicians, planners and senior road engineers – don’t cycle and treat it as non-existent. The debacle of the Jack Lynch tunnel in Cork would suggest so.

If these people were forced to cycle on the roads they expect others to use, maybe things would be improved and more people would take to the bike?

Charles Edwards

Willow Bank

Woking

Surrey GU22 9PD

England