Mr Whitehead (letters, last week) is mistaken regarding my understanding of the logic of the white-lining on Cannings Hill, and in implying that I favour the annihilation of car-loads of small children rather than driving safely. At no time did my letter refer to “zooming”.

My contention is that the logic, being based solely on enforcing inappropriately low speed in a very short distance, downhill, is flawed because it endangers the very people he purports to be protecting from his zooming traffic.

Firstly, he is confining the turning traffic to a lane they don’t need to be in, which may contain recently overtaking traffic merging into that lane as well as the slower traffic that was overtaken and which is now gaining speed on the downhill slope. Secondly, because the boundaries of the white-lining are not solid lines, he is failing to protect them from traffic which can legitimately enter the hatched area, including traffic intending to make the turn and which for its own safety has chosen to stay out of that left-hand lane.

Right-turning traffic which was not indicating in the old layout was putting itself in danger, and in 28 years’ use I don’t recall witnessing any. The new layout provides room for no more waiting vehicles than before, and if the white lines are followed, can only be entered at low speed. In the old layout the distinction between overtaking and turning traffic was obvious, but now the latter can arise from either lane and, if from the left-hand lane, may well be signalling much later because it is going slower.

On the uphill slope prior to this section, the only signage refers to the ending of the dual carriageway, not to the upcoming junction, nor to the loss of the outside lane which the new lining seeks to impose, and there is a reliance on familiarity rather than visibility until over the brow, which I contend is too late.

His change of emphasis between the uphill ‘crawler’ lane and the subsequent downhill section is, in other words, in the minds of the designers and not reflected on the ground.

Replicating the signage of the inbound on the outbound carriageway would better reflect the new situation. Better still would be to remove the new white lining and reinstate the old. Better yet would be to provide a proper turning lane by widening the central reservation.

Sorry if that costs money but safety does not always come as cheaply as Mr Whitehead would like. It would be much safer than the present layout.

Brian W Smith, Devizes.