Sir – Barbara Raw’s shrill instruction to Cyclox was surprising (Letters, January 29). Your report of a new street on the Radcliffe Infirmary site, shared between cyclist and pedestrian was pleasing.

TRRL research in Oxford, 1993, found that cyclists and pedestrians mix without problem. Barbara Raw’s footpath has been a regular route, for years; at least since the ‘new’ 1980s housing-for-sale was laced around the 1960s housing at St Ebbes (Friars Wharf and Preachers Lane).

Admittedly the ‘new’ housing was laid out in a way that was bound to generate problems. A public path runs along the private-side of the dwellings, along the stream. The view to the west is quite pretty so the developer provided very low walls for the residents to see from their living rooms. (Compare the same developer’s ‘social housing’ nearby, backing on to the river, with 6ft walls!) Because the walls to the stream are low the residents can feel ‘overlooked’. To get privacy for themselves (which might be seen as selfish if they demanded that the path were closed) a ‘war on irresponsible cyclists’ is an easy one to promote. The county put in the barriers, originally so badly that it was impossible to wheel a pushchair through.

The barriers clearly have the effect of privatising a public path and using the alleged ‘danger of cyclists’ as a reason. This is a reminder that the detail of planning applications matters enormously.

If badly-designed lay outs like this are allowed, it will have an impact on the mode of cycling. It will put the cyclists who could use this path, from all of South Oxford heading to the west, the station and the proposed ‘West End’ etc, on to the particularly threatening bit of the Oxpens ‘dual carriageway’.

Graham Smith, Urban designer, Oxford