The stats confirm that cyclists are using the lanes

• YOUR letter-writer P Murray tells us that the new protected cycle lanes on Haverstock Hill are redundant, (Death of Haverstock Hill, September 8 ).

And G Stubbs says there are hardly any cyclists on them above England’s Lane and asks whether anyone monitors cycle lane usage, (Give us back our parking – is anyone monitoring the usage on this cycle lane? September 8).

As it happens Camden Council does monitor just that; more than 25 automatic cycle counters have been installed at significant points throughout the borough including three on Haverstock Hill.

The data they generate is published for all to see on the council’s Open Data server. My analysis shows that in recent weeks 450 to 600 people cycled past Belsize Park station each day (roughly equal numbers in each direction) and a some­what larger number (700 to 1,000) used the section below England’s Lane.

These numbers are encouraging and we can look forward to a gradual growth for this new facility, as can be seen in the data for the roads where protected lanes have been in place for longer.

Of course, these are only “cyclists”, they can’t be the sort of people that your letter-writers consider worthy of road space; parents, children, shoppers, coffee-sippers, students, doctors, nurses.

But in reality the users of the new Haverstock Hill lanes and the other parts of Camden’s emerging safe cycling network are precisely those sorts of people.

Note that Camden’s transport planners have installed this excellent addition to the cycling network by the removal of parking spaces, not traffic lanes, with very little impact on traffic flow.

And when cyclists stop to shop on Haverstock their cycles require only about 1.2 square metres of parking space, not the 12 square metres usually allocated for each on-road car park­ing space.

Cyclists travel without producing harmful emissions; they consume no fossil fuel and many of them have chosen to leave a car at home or go car-free, helping to relieve London’s ever-growing traffic congestion problems.

GEORGE COULOURIS, NW5