Sir, – Being a long-time Paris resident, I read with great interest Naomi O’Leary’s article (“Recreating my old cycling commute shows how Paris won the car wars”, March 22nd) on how outgoing mayor Anne Hidalgo has made the city more bicycle-friendly, and less car-friendly, over her two terms of office.

As I have never owned a motor vehicle, I am naturally not a standard-bearer for the disgruntled groups of motorists bemoaning this positive discrimination in favour of bicycles. Being an occasional bike user, I share O’Leary’s pleasure in two-wheeled saunters between neighbourhoods, and, as a daily pedestrian, I can only applaud the subsequent improvement in the quality of life, especially the significant drop in air pollution.

However, in Paris as elsewhere, change always creates conflict, and perfect peace between road users in town or country seems an almost impossible goal at times. For example, I frequently rail against Parisian cyclists who, no doubt bolstered by perceived municipal indulgence, blithely ignore all the rules, speed through red lights, mount pavements when impeded in their progress and hurl virulent abuse at anyone who like me dares to remind them that rules of the road are there to be observed, not broken.

In the second round of the municipal elections last Sunday, the left-wing coalition candidate, Emmanuel Grégoire, duly beat his right-wing opponent, Rachida Dati, in the contest to succeed Hidalgo in the mayor’s chair.

In keeping with the spirit of the most visible of his coalition’s policies, the victor celebrated his electoral triumph by cycling across the city with his supporters. Monsieur Grégoire has promised stricter policing of cyclists in our beloved city and, while he’s at it, I encourage him to also insist on wearing helmets, which are not compulsory at present, a situation that leads to more serious head injuries in accidents, of which there are many.

And, while waiting for our newly-elected mayor to get into his official stride (and back on his bike), when setting foot outside in the street I shall keep my Kerry-born eyes peeled for dangerous cyclists, a genuine menace to law-abiding pedestrians. – Yours, etc,

STEPHEN O’SULLIVAN,

75009 Paris,

France.

Sir, – The fact that so many cyclists are not lit up properly on our roads is a disgrace.

Even worse is the number of delivery cyclists who do not have proper lights on their bikes.

We need to have a campaign to ensure all cyclists have proper lighting.

For very little money we could improve safety and prevent accidents on our roads. – Yours, etc,

MARIE HUMPHRIES,

Drumcondra,

Dublin 9.