Last Tuesday was my 60th birthday. As on other days, I cycled to work from East Oxford to the city centre, over Magdalen Bridge, towards Longwall.

The road has been disintegrating month by month, year by year.

There is barely room for a bus and a cycle and don't the bus drivers know it!

They sit on your tail with barely an inch to spare. Today, one got even closer and, scared, yes scared, I got off, and walked to work.

All the hot air about sustainability and carbon reduction and global warming is meaningless waffle handed out by the political parties in the vain hope we might vote for them.

I'm a confident cyclist but in parts of Oxford, I no longer feel safe.

Cowley Road on which millions was spent, is now more dangerous. The Plain, on which more money was spent to make it safer, is worse and the handing over of High Street to the bus companies has made that more dangerous.

I know I am not alone in expressing these views. Print this and see the response.

I can't do anything to make things better.

I'm certainly not going to travel by bus because that would be giving victory to the bus companies.

Fortunately I've got an old banger and a place to park. It might cost me a bit more, but at least I have a better chance of making it to 70.

Someone has just told me that it's National Bike Week. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

David Leake, Divinity Road, Oxford