Tony Augarde’s letter on traffic mismanagement (ViewPoints, July 4) struck a chord with me.

In my youth I thought nothing of walking around Oxford for hours and carrying all my shopping back to the bus stop. In those days there were buses that ran through the city centre and you could get from Kidlington to Headington without having to change buses (and pay two separate bus fares).

These days it is a major struggle for me to leave one bus in Magdalen Street East and battle my way through the people-jam that is Cornmarket to get another bus at New Road. If I could walk Cornmarket in a straight line it would help but that is impossible. One is constantly ‘walked through’ by groups of people, often walking four or five abreast, or one is forced to make a detour round the crowd that has accumulated around a busker.

Soon I will be forced to give up my much-loved voluntary job because the walk I have to make is now long, slow, painful and probably detrimental to my health. I know I am not alone. There are many in a similar situation I have a cunning plan, however, which I am sure those who ‘organise’ the roads and pathways in the city would be delighted to operate. Why don’t they simply cull all residents and users of the city over the age of 60? They are obviously not welcome. Think what would be saved on bus passes.

ELSPETH GORING (age 62) Hailey Road Oxford