Further to your item about the 20mph speed limit (Oxford Mail, March 3), there is a sense in which town and country are divided.

The police not having penalised anyone in town for going above the 20mph limit might mean that more drivers are using the park & ride – though somehow I doubt it, since I feel that the police have different priorities.

Contrary to the popular assertion, I believe speeding fines go to the Exchequer. Thames Valley Police, therefore, has no incentive to prosecute except in the most blatant cases.

In the countryside, where the national speed limit applies on narrow country roads, unless a lower (50mph) is requested by a local authority, we have an ecological mess, as most cars are designed for an optimum trade off of fuel economy versus journey time of around 50mph. Why do we not have that as the national speed limit?

I live on the A4260 between Oxford and Banbury. If we lowered the national speed limit to cope with the pot-holed rural roads, with a tolerance of 10 per cent, then drivers going at more than 55mph would be seen to be doing wrong. Societal norms do not treat speeding as criminal unless it causes death.

Why not, then, change motoring behaviour, and drive slower on all roads except motorways?

On these a raised speed limit of a rigidly enforced 80mph would not drastically increase the casualty rate.

We are so in love with the convenience of our cars that we are damaging the very quality of life, wherever we live.

Paul B Godwin, Adderbury