Mr Fowler's letter in last week's Gazette and Herald echoes my own views previously expressed in your letters column and elsewhere.

The legislation which penalises cyclists for using the pavement was drafted in an age when today's traffic problems could never have been imagined. Consequently, the law now fails to take account of present day road traffic chaos and driver behaviour.

Like many other cyclists, I will continue to ride on pavements as a means of self preservation under the threats of congested roads and unenforced traffic laws but I will do so with due consideration for pedestrians and others who share them.

Our local authorities appear quite unable to make adequate provision for cyclists and will not even attempt simple constructional work such as the re-establishment of a roadside path on the A4 between Chippenham and Calne and on towards Avebury. They have also failed, right from the start, to install an acceptable riding surface on National Cycle Route 4 through the locality.

So, what else could be done? There are towns and cities on the continent where cyclists and pedestrians happily share the same paths and no-one gets fined for doing so. We need a highway code for shared use of pavements, stressing the live and let live attitude necessary for both groups to co-exist. As a stop gap, the police might care to stop jumping on those cyclists who use pavements responsibly and create no obvious threat to others.

It is interesting to see that mechanically propelled wheelchairs have been allowed on pavements despite the dangers they can pose. Many such vehicles are used by folk whose reflexes are not what they used to be. I certainly would not want to move these mobility aids on to the roads but I make the observation simply to show that new technology has forced a change in the law. If the bicycle was invented tomorrow, would it be allowed to join the wheelchairs on the pavement or would it be forced into the road traffic maelstrom?

Dennis Price Wenhill Heights Calne