Sir – I was put out to discover that a 30-yard section of the Broad — perhaps its least crowded section, at the western end — has been closed to cyclists.

Why, for heaven’s sake? Who benefits?

Are pedestrians, who have increasingly fallen into the habit of wandering about in the middle of the carriageway in a half trance, to be further indulged, so that they need pay even less attention to their surroundings, at the expense of cyclists, whose progress may be assumed to be purposeful? The traffic authorities’ aim ought to be to ease the problems of getting across the city, not exacerbate them.

Has it occurred to them that a cyclist walking his or her bike, as opposed to riding it, takes up twice as much road space, stays there twice as long, and can less easily manoeuvre round other people?

Martin West, Oxford