With regard to Victor Pulis’ letter One Way On Senglea Front (July 23), where he rightly complained about the fact that this now meant that traffic was diverted up through the narrow streets of Senglea to permit a ‘coach’ contra-flow along the front, the Bicycling Advocacy Group would like to point out that it had made similar comments to the local council and also to Transport Malta.

The current situation means that cyclists would also have to legally climb Senglea’s narrow streets. This would slow drivers, especially because of the narrow roads and parking on both sides on wider sections causing cyclists to take centre lane to avoid car doors on either side.

Alternatively, cyclists might be tempted to ride wrong way up the coach contra-flow.

The latter may be favourable to everyone as it would slow traffic less, bicycles are narrower than coaches and a well signposted bicycle contra-flow such as this is quite common and indeed often safer in other European cities.

We (cyclists) don’t want to slow traffic down on the uphill into Senglea but are legally constrained to. Neither do we want to see cyclists riding the wrong way but failing to plan, as they say, is planning to fail. Failing to plan for cyclists just creates conflicts. After all, if a great big coach can be allowed a contra-flow shouldn’t we start thinking about contra-flows for cyclists to encourage cycling and reduce traffic in congested cities and towns? Or are we so in love with the motor car that we love traffic jams too?