Sir – One of the worst traffic snarl-ups in Oxford has to be in Headley Way and Marsh Lane in the mornings and evenings, when staff and patients go to and come from the John Radcliffe Hospital. The traffic backs up all the way from the JR to the A40 every morning and it’s solid all the way down Headley Way from about 3.30pm until 6pm every day.

Patients coming for 9am appointments at the hospitals need to allow an extra half hour at least for travelling time.

The park-and-ride is not a great help since the buses too get stuck in the traffic, and many patients are not well enough to travel by bus. Now there are plans for a big housing development at Barton and I’m wondering if this could be an opportunity to unclog parts of Headington and Marston, rather than just adding to traffic misery.

My idea is to build a good-sized car park off the A40 adjacent to the new Barton development. This would not be a park-and-ride, but rather a park-and-walk or cycle, connected by a footbridge across the A40 to Foxwell Drive.

This would give a short invigorating walk or cycle ride for able-bodied commuters to the hospital via the back entrance off Saxon Way. It could be a permit-only car park for some of the NHS and university employees who currently have permits to park in the staff car parks at the JR (paid for in the same way as staff currently pay for parking permits) but it could also include some pay-and-display spaces for visitors.

Reduction in the number of staff parking spaces at the JR would ease the rush-hour pressure on Headley Way and other city roads, and make more parking spaces available for patients and visitors, who come and go at various times of day rather than just at peak times.

Alternatively, some of the acreage of car parking space at the hospital could be turned back into green spaces and gardens.

Rosie Head, Headington