Most people use cars as they feel they have to, public transport is so bad and expensive in this country. Improving it, will reduce congestion. Building more roads has been proved not to work, and where will room be found to do it? Compulsory purchase of peoples homes will not be popular.

Reply: name a car where travelling at 39mph optimises fuel use. Supporting public transport may not cut pollution or CO2 output, as all vehicles pollute and generate CO2 at some or all stages of their life cycle. You need to look at the emissions on the whole journey, not just the bit that people can do by train. Few people live at a station one end of the journey and work at a station the other end.

Do you have proof that you consume more fuel at 40 than at 50/60? It depends on your car/style of driving/tyre pressure etc, but in a high gear at 40 isn’t so bad. Perhaps all motorways/roads should have a max speed of 55 to conserve fuel, as happened in the USA after the oil crisis in the 70s.

Reply: My car tells me how much fuel it is using as I drive. I cannot drive at under 40mph in top gear, so yes it does use more fuel. Why are you so against personal flexible transport, and do you not appreciate buses and coaches, lorries and vans needs roads as well as cars? Trains are often dirtier than cars - trains onyl work as greener methods of travel when they are full or nearly full and when it is easy to get to and from the station.

It sounds like John wants a return to the Conservative road building program of the 90’s that lead to increased congestion. The answer is to improve public transport, and cycling facilities; that will take cars off the road. The policy was thought to have died in 1994, when a government committee concluded that what environmentalists had been saying for years was correct - building more roads encourages more traffic.

Just look at the Newbury bypass, lots of money spent on what he may call a ‘green road’, but it encouraged traffic. See http://www.cpre.org.uk/news/view/321

John you should drive at the legal speed of 40 mph withought the speeding up and slowing down near speed cameras, leave it in high gear and save fuel. Or better yet get the train.

Reply: I did travel at 40mph but that means a lower gear and more fuel consumption. Be realistic - 86% of all miles travelled are travelled by car or van. Even buses need roads. It is often a green option to improve the road. Why do you think trains are green? Many of them are dirty old diesel engines of a kind we wouldn’t allow on the roads.