Sir, Your editorial of June 30 shows a basic flaw in your understanding of economics and consequential human behaviour when you conclude that the only way to increase bus usage is to implement some form of congestion charging; this, of course, presupposes that we are generally rational beings. Quite how you arrive at this contentious conclusion is beyond me.

As a usually rational individual when I make a decision to go into town (at weekends as I don't have the luxury of being able to work in Oxford) I mostly opt for the car. Why? Because I can get in to town (and leave) when I want and only pay, at the time of the journey, £1.50 for parking for one hour. If I am to use the bus it will cost £1.40 one way on a non-transferable ticket for the dubious pleasure of riding in an often overcrowded bus where if I proffer anything more than a £5 note I am likely to have my custom declined.

So what am I to conclude that we should put up the price of parking? No, because Oxford parking is already overpriced compared to other cities. So one must conclude that the price of a single or return bus fare must be reduced 75p one way or £1 return on a transferable ticket would be a good start. Incidentally to get from one side of Brussels (a much bigger city) to the other via transferable bus / tram / underground costs roughly £1, which is a rather favourable comparison to £1.40 from Summertown to the centre a distance of perhaps two miles!

A second idea might be to do away with the ridiculous pretence of competition for travel and have a unified single bus company (with consequential savings in administration) for what is still, after all, a small city.

Simon Jefferson, Oxford