Sir – Regarding some criticism Beechcroft Road’s new “DIY Street” has inspired, it’s clear some people have forgotten the original purpose residential roads were built for: exchange and communication.

This has gradually become perverted into today’s “roads are for cars” attitude, which is a dangerous popular delusion. It leads to self-righteous driver rage when cycles, pedestrians, kids, and pets get “in their way”.

Even Government road safety campaigns support this delusion. “One false move and you’re dead”, a 1980s slogan aimed at children, shifted responsibility away from motorists and on to the children they killed. Beechcroft’s innovative installation poses a challenge to this killer delusion. It addresses motorists with grace, affecting their behaviour by immersing them in a context designed to remind drivers of the normal rules of civilised social interaction.

It’s the opposite approach of traditional anti-car traffic-calming features that rely upon authoritarian commands, the threat of fines, and destructive speed bumps.

Beechcroft Road is one of 11 streets across the UK taking part in a pilot scheme run by transport charity Sustrans.

Residents were given the opportunity to redesign their street to address their forgotten functions, such as safe pedestrian access and informal social exchange.

We created our installation for the cost of three speed bumps with funding from the Esme Fairbairn Foundation, Pink and Black, Potters Europe, and a grant from Oxford City Council. Residents and volunteers worked in close association with Oxfordshire County Council’s highways and transport department, but the county council provided no funds whatsoever to purchase materials or install the scheme.

Our residents’ association spent four years fundraising, consulting, designing, negotiating, arguing, testing, building, and ultimately, celebrating. No political insider lives on our street, so we achieved it simply with collective determination and creativity. Who’s next?

Ted Dewan, Oxford