Stuart Jeffries’ recognition that he shares the privilege of Londoners when it comes to public transport (I ditched my car – and improved my fitness, sleep and bank balance, 7 June) reminds us that this is a massive component of regional inequality that challenges the levelling-up waffle.
I gave up the car in November 2022, and I too am privileged – but in a completely different way. I know how to get the best out of a failing public transport system better than most people in West Yorkshire. I have studied bus and train timetables since childhood, I have done service on a transport authority and I have honed my limited IT skills to track wayward buses and trains. The latter is necessary because timetables often morph into fairytales.
Buses can mysteriously vanish without warning when three or four stops away. Sometimes, before resorting to a taxi, I can check out a different route that gets me within reasonable walking distance of home. Local people enjoy their trips to London but invariably come back full of transport envy. Not driving is a sort of liberation – but it would be wonderful to be able to share more fully in the enhanced lifestyle Stuart Jeffries depicts.
Geoff Reid
Bradford
• I don’t think I’ve ever read such an urban-centric article. With all the travel options available to Stuart Jeffries, it’s taken the revelation that he could choose to ditch his car, plus financial issues, to bring him to the self-congratulatory halls of the environmentally correct. And in the meantime? Those of us living in rural communities have no such options. Yes, we could walk or cycle – but this is perilous on local roads, which have neither pavements nor cycle paths. And those who live and work in rural areas? Stay home, don’t bother the doctor unless absolutely necessary, and find the taxi money.
Victoria Smillie
Norwich
• Congratulations to Stuart Jeffries for finding that relinquishing his Polo didn’t leave a hole in his life. But if he tried living in north Lancashire, with our woefully inadequate public transport infrastructure, he would be at a car showroom within days.
Tim Mansfield
Galgate, Lancaster
• I have recently visited the capital and, no offence to Stuart Jeffries, I’d be more impressed to read an account of someone who manages to drive a car in gridlocked London.
Ruth Pritchard
Rhyl, Denbighshire
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