Sir – I am disappointed that you decided to publish the recent letter from Nigel Clarke (April 5), being, as it was, purely an anti-cyclist diatribe which added precisely nothing to the actual debate in hand.

Laughably, Mr Clarke’s main reason for disliking cyclists appears to be that, on occasion, they have ‘almost’ scratched his paintwork!

I would like Mr Clarke to consider the fact that there are many situations where, purely due to the road layout, cars and bicycles are forced to travel in closer proximity to each other than either would like.

But in those situations, whilst the worst thing that’s likely to happen to Mr Clarke, being safely cocooned inside his tonne or more of metal and reinforced plastic, is that his precious paintwork might get slightly marked, the cyclist travelling alongside him faces the risk of serious injury or even death if the driver makes even a slightly unexpected movement.

Perhaps if Mr Clarke would care to bear this in mind, he might end up demonstrating just a little more tolerance and humility towards his fellow road users such as myself, who choose a different method of transport from him but pay all of their taxes and, therefore, have just as much right to be on the roads as he does.

Chris Day, Kidlington