Sir - While I would welcome their introduction, I think I should introduce a few words of caution into your report (Report, June 15) of the University's championing of "shared space" treatments for roads in the Parks area.

While it is true that these have been successfully introduced on the Continent (though "widely used" is probably an exaggeration) their introduction in town centres has followed the widespread use of similar treatments in residential areas.

Thus drivers had been introduced to the concept of "negotiated passage" rather than the idea of "right of way" familiar to our conventional use of the roads.

The Dutch Woonerf concept of residential traffic calming has arrived here in a somewhat watered down fashion as Home Zones.

In Britain there are only about 100 of these Home Zones where drivers can get used to this new way of driving.

In Oxfordshire, I believe, there are only two.

Given this, councillor David Robertson is probably right to be cautious about whether the public is ready for shared space.

The other point is that, even in Holland, such schemes are not implemented by just taking out the traffic lights.

To negotiate your way along a road safely it is essential that you can see the person that you are negotiating with, whether this is another driver, a pedestrian or cyclist, preferably eye to eye.

This requires an almost complete redesign of the junction. Which would, of course, mean substantial costs to the highways department.

Which, in turn, means that we should not expect these to be rolled out across the city too quickly.

William Richter, Oxford