I had to smile at your comments about cycling students (Oxford Mail, October 16), especially after the encounter I had with a young man in Cornmarket Street in Oxford at 2pm.

He was happily riding his bicycle in what most of us by now know is a pedestrian area.

I stopped him and asked him if he would please get off and push his bike instead of riding it, explaining that it was a pedestrian area and therefore dangerous for other people.

He became very patronising, explaining to me that when he first came to Oxford, he had looked at the road signs, read them very carefully and that, if I cared to bother to read them, I, too, could see that it was all right to ride between 10am and 6pm.

I tried to explain to him that those were the times that one was not allowed to ride.

He said: "Listen, I came to Oxford as a student and I wouldn't have got here if I was not intelligent."

I replied that getting to Oxford University only meant that he had knowledge of certain subjects, but did not necessarily mean that he had common sense.

I even pointed out a chap in front of us. Why was he pushing his bicycle if he could ride it instead?

It was obvious that he knew the rules.

But the student still would not accept that he should not be riding and pedalled off towards St Giles, happy in his ignorance.

What a fool he is going to feel when he finds out that notices with a red ring around them mean something is banned, not allowed.

I would do anything to see his face when the penny drops.

I might be an OAP, leaving school at the age of 15, but I can read road signs which is more than he could do.

PAMELA WEBBER Bullingdon Road Oxford