Readers’ letters: Cyclists must give pedestrians more consideration on shared paths

Obscure signs on some shared pedestrian and cycle pathways in Edinburgh inviting cyclists to give way to pedestrians does not solve the danger of cyclists fast or slow appearing from behind, most of whom give no warning bell. Most cyclists have no bell at all.

I am both a pedestrian and a cyclist and do have a warning bell and do slow down when approaching pedestrians, families with small children dashing about or unpredictable and dogs off the lead.

We do all have our separate responsibilities and must be considerate of each other, but sneaking speeding cyclists are unacceptable; the very speedy fat-tyred food delivery guys often now being the worst offenders.

Edinburgh is a cycle-friendly city but I would question whether pedestrians, especially those who are disabled and aged, unable to jump out of the way when surprised by a cyclist, are given sufficient consideration. A cycle bell costs very little but a speeding cyclist colliding with an unsuspecting pedestrian can be seriously physically damaging to both parties and to a frail elderly person even fatal.

Cycle bells should be obligatory and speed limits for cyclists should be mandatory and enforceable wherever cyclists and pedestrians are to mix. A campaign by the city council, bike shops, cycle clubs and even insurance companies would not go amiss.

Leslie Howson, Edinburgh

Life and death vote

As your editorial (9 January) states, a massive queue has formed and any one of us could find ourselves joining it. Patients wait to see a doctor and a specialist and are put on a waiting list for treatment, they may need to wait for an ambulance and wait outside A&E for a bed and on a trolley for surgery. Even after that we learn patients can wait in hospital for over a year for social care. All this is testing the patience of not just the one in nine Scots on a waiting list but anyone needing the NHS.

Three things have transpired to cause this state of affairs. Firstly we are living longer, which puts more pressure on the NHS. In 1950 Scots were expected to live for about 70 years on average, now it is around 78, but with only about 60 years of good health. Secondly, our population has grown by nearly 10 per cent since 2000 to a record 5.55 million. Thirdly, treatments have advanced. causing greater spend on specialist equipment and drugs, taking away resources from elsewhere.

While health spending has outstripped inflation for almost every year of the past 19 years of SNP government, life expectancy has started to decline for the first time and is the lowest in Western Europe. While there are staffing issues, manpower and spending is at record levels, confirming that the NHS has become critically inefficient. It’s no wonder health is the top issue among Scots voters. The SNP can’t be trusted with another term in office. Our lives depend on the NHS, which makes the Holyrood election a matter of life and death.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Lacking experience

Gerald Edwards (Letters, 10 January) should be more forgiving of NHS problems by remembering that the SNP – whose responsibility it is – started as a single-issue pressure group, but now find themselves having to manage significant aspects of Scotland’s affairs, without training or previous experience.

This is probably why successive leaders have avoided the step into independence, knowing that economic and managerial failure would be likely.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Perth & Kinross

Nuclear duds

We are now firmly stuck in Donald Trump’s Mad New World in which he will take any kind of action to further his agenda.

One aspect of this is that if you cross him he has his pals in Silicon Valley arrange your digital cancellation. It is reported, for example, that International Criminal Court Judge Kimberly Prost, who authorised investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan under American occupation, found that she subsequently had no access to emails, credit cards, and her voice-activated smart speaker. And there are other such examples of prominent individuals being marooned in a digital desert.

Scotland and the rest of Europe now find themselves dangerously exposed to the dominance of United States-hosted software, such as Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Twitter. And this obviously extends to the military software that arms, launches and guides the Trident missiles of our “independent” (hah!) nuclear deterrent.

That the US and UK are now on opposite sides of a potential Western hemisphere conflict reinforces the fact that our fleet of four Vanguard submarines are now effectively duds, as will be their Dreadnought replacements if they ever get launched. Keir Starmer should bin his stated plans for an order of 12 nuclear bomb-carrying F35s. On their delivery it will be found that their avionics are cancelled for any mission other than that personally approved by Trump.

Ken Gow, Banchory, Aberdeenshire

Look in the mirror

US government debt has increased by at least 3 per cent in the first year of Donald Trump’s second term. The US government now owes $38 trillion, yet Mr Trump described the size of US government debt as a bad thing when President Biden was in office.

This debt problem has arisen mostly because people who are rich in the United States avoid paying income tax – President Trump included.

If the current US sdministration want to address the problems really confronting the United States and the world, they should take a look in the mirror.

Nigel Boddy, Darlington, County Durham

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