Letter: Red routes not for majority

I was born and raised just off Ecclesall Road on Summerfield Street and spent much of my youth travelling up and down that road to school at Greystones. For 22 years I was a bus driver driving up and down that road on the Fulwood, Ecclesall and Castleton services as well as on Abbeydale Road to Totley Bakewell etc.

The reason for much of the congestion on these roads has been and still is being caused by the restrictions imposed on traffic already by our anti-car council which creates funnelling on to these roads and setting the traffic lights to give priority to lesser roads at junctions.

I would agree the need for some yellow lines to maintain traffic flow at pinch points like around Hunters Bar, for instance, but they should remember, the roads were built for and paid for by the users. They are not playgrounds for children or exclusive to minorities like cyclists, they are for all road users to travel along and, if they wish, to stop and park where ever it is suitable.

I speak as a driver of 58 years’ experience with an all-types PSV and an HGV licence, so I think I can have an idea of what does and does not work. Red routes, in my opinion, fall into the does not work for the majority and are for minority selfish idealists.

John Greaves

Sheffield, S8