Sir – Before the county council proceeds with locating park-and-ride sites remote from Oxford they would do well to consult the extensive research carried out on park-and-ride, which stressed the importance of driver psychology in locating such sites.

Sites close to the ring road do well in this respect. It suggests that more remote sites are less likely to be successful and given the importance of the park-and-ride system in dealing with Oxford’s transport demands it could be disastrous to close any existing sites.

If remote sites are pursued it should be as a supplement to existing sites.

Moreover a large, if not the major, part of these sites was funded by financial contributions from developments in Oxford, especially the city centre, for which park-and-ride car parking was viewed as a substitute for their own on-site parking.

If these parking spaces were closed it could be regarded as a breach of faith, if not the terms of the planning agreements that secured the money.

Far from closing the existing sites they should be expanded wherever possible and traffic problems on the ring road better addressed by, for example, improving access to park-and-ride sites to reduce congestion-such as a direct link to Seacourt and more generally reducing car traffic.

M Ford
Oxford