"DON'T stop me driving," says Margaret Smith (Straight Talking, June 19) and accuses the Government of not facing up to a need for more roads.

Unfortunately the Government has to face the fact that people also want houses away from busy roads and car-free shopping areas. Also better health, active, happier children and more schools, hospitals, police, libraries.....

In most areas of demand there is a test for the desire and/or need by a price mechanism (gold, holidays, caviar), regulation (clean air, safety, unadulterated food) or testing (National Health Service).

But pressure on roadspace is uncontrolled hence the queuing ("congestion") which Margaret experiences in the "rush-hours." It is a crude form of rationing.

There is no market, therefore no rent payable or any other mechanism for Margaret to compete for the space over drivers whose desire or need is less great than hers.

There is no financial incentive for her, or other potential bidders for the scarce facility, to put work and home along a public transport corridor.

Building roads the old, failed "solution" would have, at most, a very limited role. High Wycombe would need total redesign to get more vehicles inside.

Also, three out of ten households now are without cars. Accommodating all these, plus adding roads for more travel per person, as living standards rise, to be by car, puts serious strains on the budget and on the planning system.

While cars have brought some freedom, especially easy access to remote places, they have also denied freedoms. Elderly people fear to walk about, especially at night, as they do not like largely empty streets, as their neighbours are out in cars, not on foot.

Children lose physical and social and/or emotional health, as pavements have become noisy and polluted at the side of a dangerous racetrack. Obesity in children is a problem and expected to continue into adulthood unless transport is reformed. We should encourage Bucks County Council to do more for walk to school.

Landing on Mars is politically easier than solving the many interacting problems of over-trafficked towns, where people's desire for transport can only be met by reducing space and comfort for everyone.

Electric cars may have a future but are still anti-urban and use space profligately. It is not "control freaks" who want less use of cars but the hard facts of scarcity of space, safety, and the need for walkable areas, "living streets". The alternative is to build all over the countryside and manage without town centres.

Inherent scarcity and conflict are hard facts of life. Sadly the Government is backtracking on the 1998 White Paper, "A new deal for transport: better for everyone", but better conditions for walking, more and better public transport, perhaps more cycling, must be part of the long-term solution.

Easier driving is needed for people who must drive but apparent cures for present ills need to be seen in a wider context.

Jim Whitehead

Belmont Road

Chesham