Sir – I am intrigued by the correspondence regarding the 20mph limit in Oxford. I am keeping an open mind as to its value, and wait to see how it has affected accident statistics or air pollution after it has been in operation for a while.

May I suggest that, instead of waving a speed gun around on Morrell Avenue, you send a correspondent out in a car equipped, like mine, with a speed limiter. This allows you to set a maximum speed while you are driving and drive normally up to that limit.

When I try to drive through 20mph zones in more major routes like London Road in Headington heading towards St Clements or over Magdalen Bridge leaving the High Street I feel under intense pressure from drivers who want to go faster. Frequently these are taxis or Oxford private hire vehicles, ie local professional drivers.

I have been overtaken doing 20mph in these zones, in areas where I would not have been overtaken when they were 30mph.

The zones seem to encourage this behaviour and I cannot see that this adds to road safety.

Please will someone tell Mr Styring that if he goes down Headington Hill to St Clements he will come in to a 20mph limit (marked by badly placed signs) before the lower end of Morrell Avenue, so yes, it is in the 20mph zone. Meanwhile please will someone teach Oxford cyclists the rules of the road, for example that flashing lights mean that 50 per cent of the time they are invisible and much more difficult to track in traffic; that using a miner’s lamp as a headlamp is not great as they disappear when they turn their head and the light is not at the level that a driver scans for oncoming traffic. Things like this might be trendy but they are not safe. In Oxford I am a pedestrian, a cyclist, a bus passenger and a car driver.

Bill Baxter, Old Marston