Crediting himself with prompting our advice to cyclists about best practice, Jean Karl Soler fails to fact-check before putting pen to paper (July 2).

Admittedly, our advice was targeted towards car drivers swapping to a bike. Licensed car drivers would be expected to know the Highway Code, so the ‘small print’ was intentionally omitted due to space.

Soler’s letter aptly demonstrates that drivers themselves may not know the Highway Code as well as they should and that this does not accurately dovetail with local regulations.

He states incorrectly that wearing a cycle helmet is compulsory. This is not so. The 2001 version of the Highway Code states explicitly that cyclists ‘should’ use helmets; it does not say ‘must’.

The more recent Low Powered Vehicles and Pedal Cycle Regulations go on to state that helmets are only mandatory for 250w pedelec riders and children under 10 carried on an adult’s bicycle.

Therefore, BAG accurately conforms to what both the Highway Code and regulations state.

What most drivers do not know is that the same regulations advise cyclists to “as safely as possible” keep left, mindful of their need to still avoid door zones and pinch points.

As to his assertion that cyclists should ride unseen in the gutter against the kerb “so as not to block other road users at junctions, or to prevent cars overtaking them”, while we would not encourage obstructing traffic, clear exceptions exist “on the approach to an intersection or a roundabout or when overtaking other traffic”.

Therefore, appropriately ‘taking the lane’ is not illegal andas accepted best practice, may be safer.

Interestingly, the Highway Code admonishes both cyclists and car drivers to keep left, yet, Soler conveniently keeps mum about the latter. Might this have had more value, reducing some of the head-on collisions in last year’s 15,504 accidents?