Sir — I started as a 20mph sceptic, but the local debate has convinced me that a city-wide 20mph limit should be our goal. In technocratic terms, there are clearly some roads where 20mph is "more" necessary, and others where it is more likely to be achieved, but this misses the point.

On the ground, out there on the streets, what the typical Oxford citizen wants from the traffic is respect. There is a strong feeling that traffic should limit the way it imposes itself on our community. It is a matter of self-control. That means that the very act of getting from A to B must be seen as taking second place to the need not to despoil our city. And the clearest way to demonstrate that is for speeds to be limited; it is not as if it will actually take people much longer to get anywhere.

However, as the county well understands, lowering speeds on our main roads is not just a matter of putting up signs and hoping for the best. There is no support for humps on the main roads.

But as was shown on Abingdon Road 20 years ago, a fair amount of speed control can be achieved with white paint and a few traffic islands.

Top speeds on Donnington Bridge Road were also reduced dramatically, by reducing the lane widths (and giving the space to cyclists).

This doesn't reduce speeds to 20mph, but it gets matters under control.

There is much more that could be done on similar lines, if the county dropped its acceptance of speed on the main roads. And that includes buses.

This should be our goal — to discourage speed on all roads in the city, changing the layouts to reduce speed wherever possible and necessary, and to work towards compliance with a universal 20mph.

Richard Mann, Low Carbon West Oxford