Sir, - As a keen cyclist I read Mary Holland's column of April 26th with great interest. It so happens that I agree with the points which she made regarding cyclists ignoring the rules of the road, and I have often objected to my fellow cyclists behaving as she describes.
My reason for doing so was purely selfish: by ignoring the rules of the road, cyclists provide motorists with a spurious (but to them entirely convincing) justification for trampling over the rights of cyclists and ignoring the law insofar as it tries to ensure the safety of cyclists. Thus, in the minds of many motorists, the penalty for going the wrong way up a one-way street is capital punishment.
I have sympathy for Mary Holland in the difficulties she described, but not that much. I don't know how many motorists have been killed by cyclists recently, but somehow I suspect it is not quite as many as cyclists killed by motorists. - Yours, etc.,
Frank McCartan, William Street, Lurgan, Co Armagh.