Sir – With reference to David Calder’s letter (Problem Pedestrians, February 23), I feel the reason why pedestrians are dangerously dashing into the roads and not keeping to the pavements is because so many other selfish pedestrians are blocking our very narrow pavements, caught up with conversations and not also using their brains to also watch out for people trying to get past.

What happened to the city councillors’ walk round the city’s pavements that you featured in your newspaper a while back, showing the lack of thought from cyclists who chain their cycles to posts right on pavement corners with wheels sticking right out and completely blocking the pavements.

This makes life difficult for pedestrians to stay on the pavements, let alone wheelchair-users trying to get through.

I don’t blame official tour guides for blocking pavements provided they leave a gap and not completely block the pavements.

It needs observers in authority to just walk around the city’s pavements to see where all these difficulties are for pedestrians, and work out a plan before the bulk of our many visitors will soon be arriving again.

Or is it going to be left again to the free-for-all, that time and time again seems to happen in our beautiful city, which is putting off precious visitors who then spend their money elsewhere, where they get a lot less hassle trying to walk around.

Peter Berry, Oxford