I was born in Southampton in 1957 and have lived there all my life until moving to Devon last year on retirement.

My family still live in Southampton and I return once a month to visit them.

My elderly parents live at one end of the Avenue, my sister lives at the other, with my brother somewhere in the middle, in Highfield. The Avenue, therefore, is our means of reaching each other.

I am bewildered and quite appalled at what Southampton town planners have done in the Avenue and Hill Lane, and what they are proposing to do in Bitterne Road West, by halving the number of lanes to provide cycle tracks.

I understand the government's plans for reducing carbon emissions and its obsession with cycling as an alternative to cars, but the reality is that most people will continue to use their cars as bicycles are not a viable option for transporting children, elderly parents, heavy shopping etc etc.

To reduce busy roads that can barely cope with two lanes carrying large volumes of vehicles to one lane each way, thus providing a wide cycle lane, is beyond comprehension.

When I lived in Southampton I regularly used the roads mentioned above as I journeyed to work, visited family and friends and did my shopping. I know from personal experience how congested those roads are, particularly at peak periods. I also know that they are rarely used by cyclists - they are all long, busy roads which are serviced by regular buses.

They also have pavements on either side (rarely used by pedestrians) which could easily be doubled up as cycle lanes.

Your planned (and already implemented in the case of the Avenue) reduction of lanes to provide cycles tracks that will hardly be used will make life a misery for most of the citizens of Southampton, and the city will be reduced to perpetual traffic chaos when the lockdown is over and life returns to normal.

People will waste hours of their time sitting in traffic queues, with side roads and roundabouts jammed with stationary vehicles, and the carbon emissions produced by idling engines will completely defeat the purpose of reducing pollution.

People will stop driving into the city centre for shopping and leisure (being so weary of their awful journeys to work) and the high street, already struggling after the lockdown, will gradually die.

The government's model for cycle lanes is based on the London experience where movement around the city by its residents is peculiar to that city.

They have an underground system and a huge network of bus routes, not to mention the famous black cabs. Few Londoners even own cars - they have no need of them for getting around. It is possible therefore to provide cycle lanes everywhere and they are well used.

Southampton, and other large towns and cities around the country, is not set up like London and although there are bus services on the busy roads, there isn't the availability of blanket public transport - people have no option but to use their cars, and the provision of cycles lanes on most roads is not feasible or necessary. Were the citizens of Southampton even consulted on whether they wanted these cycle lanes?

My guess is that the cycle lanes you have provided on the Avenue will not be used by cyclists, but frustrated and angry motorists who will try to get through the resultant traffic jams by squeezing into them.

A disaster awaits and I hope the town planners will have the good sense to reverse their crazy and ill-judged plans.

Lisa Galbraith