Sir, Oxfordshire County Council's plans for park-and-ride facilities in the market towns seem to rest on two assumptions: 1: A large proportion of the traffic that regularly brings the A34 to a halt is going into/out of Oxford 2: A large proportion of the population of Abingdon and Bicester work in the centre of Oxford. Has any empirical research been carried out into the veracity of these assumptions?

My impression is that at least 75 per cent of the traffic on the A34 is freight and passenger traffic passing through the area on the way between the south coast and the Midlands and north.

Of the remaining traffic, I wonder what percentage of it is made up of drivers who work on the outskirts of Oxford (in the business and science parks and so on), who would not be able to take advantage of the present (and future?) park-and-ride facilities? Much more research needs to be done before public money is spent on new facilities.

One kind of park-and-ride facility that has already proven itself is Warwick Parkway a rail-based solution largely for travellers to London. A low-cost idea would be to build a park-and-ride (Bicester Parkway?) facility to take people to both Oxford and London.

This could be built in Bicester at the point where the rail lines to Oxford and London cross. There is also plenty of land for car parking there.

I understand that the excellent company, Chiltern Railways, are already looking at this. I hope that they and Oxfordshire County Council will get their heads together soon. Chilterns seem to be staffed by experts in public transport planning.

Perhaps they could charge Oxfordshire County Council consultancy fees, as there doesn't seem to be any such expertise in the council.

Robert Bley, Bicester