CALLS for speed reductions on the A34 are unfortunately wrong-headed.

The road is simply massively undercapacity for the traffic it carries, as a trunk route linking Southampton with the motorway network north.

The HGVs that so often impede car traffic now are limited to 55mph (90kph) so that an additional imposed restriction to 50mph would have little impact – and that small effect would be to diminish capacity when the road space is free of HGVs, the opposite of what is required.

Road fatalities in the UK have dropped very markedly in recent years despite traffic growth and the safest type of road by any measure you choose are motorways.

These are generally three or more lanes, with HGVs only allowed in the first and second, and a hard shoulder that removes breakdowns from the general flow.

It is the absence of these factors that makes the A34 the most hazardous road in Oxfordshire.

Lack of road space encourages tailgating and undertaking; causes many motorcyclists – whose annual death rate is increasing – to weave between lanes; can intimidate the nervous; and gives little margin for minor errors or inattention.

There is only one realistic solution to this - widening the road to three lanes with a proper hard shoulder, distasteful as that may be to some.

GERALD DOREY

Whitehouse Road, Oxford