When walking recently at 10.30am on Winchester Road and Bassett Avenue I saw for the first time the chaos inflicted on us by the city council in the form of Bike Lane Madness on Bassett Avenue.

Bearing in mind that it was mid morning, there are few children making school journeys, very few people have contemplated shopping, many are working at home and other are furloughed, there are no cruise ships in the ports and no football at St.Mary's this was a time of minimal traffic.

However, traffic crawled from the Butterfield Road / Winchester Road junction to the Winchester Road / Bassett Avenue roundabout because of the single lane exit onto the roundabout.

Traffic crawled or queued southbound from the Chilworth Roundabout to the Winchester Road roundabout as far as the eye could see.

The situation northbound to the Winchester Road roundabout was similar.

I saw just one bike using the 50% of road surface allocated and hundreds of cars competing for the other 50% with catastrophic consequences for vehicle pollution.

The vast majority of road users by virtue of distance, purpose of journey and other commitments have little choice but to use a motor vehicle so it would seem that the city council are intent on discouraging as many visitors as possible to the city.

How many people will want to shop in the City when there are other alternatives not too far away?

How many employers will want to base themselves in the city?

How many cruise ships will drift off to other ports when they find that they cannot get passengers in and out in a reasonable time and turn around the ship on the same day?

This has all the hallmarks of a spectacular own goal by the city council.

The only people in favour of the cycle lanes are the very small but very noisy cycling lobby / pressure group but that goes without saying.

I do fear for everyone's safety particularly in the hours of darkness and on wet evenings when vision in wing mirrors is often not perfect. Car travel is the only guaranteed coronavirus free mode of transport and should be encouraged not penalised.

Road lanes should be opened up to cars and delivery vehicles to keep traffic moving quickly, reinstating the 40mph speed limit and perhaps allowing cars to use bus lanes, all of which would minimise vehicle pollution, encourage visitors and encourage economic activity.

BLM (Bike Lane Madness) must be stopped or watch the shops closing and the city becoming a ghost town.

Patrick McClure

Through website