Foul and fare

David Morris doesn't like cars, and wants us to blame them for pollution (Letters, 19 January). If he had bothered to check his facts, he would have known that research carried out on behalf of Edinburgh City Council found that more than 60 per cent of traffic pollution was caused by public transport, of which, I am confident, Mr Morris approves.

If the lorries and vans that supply our shops and operate our public services are deducted from the remaining 40 per cent, it will be seen that cars are not the polluters of popular myth, and are probably responsible for less than one-third of road traffic emissions.

It is also worth mentioning that the same research found Edinburgh was a particularly unpolluted city. Nobody likes pollution, and the sooner all modes of transportation – land, sea and air – are cleaned up the better. But in the meantime, let's not discount the facts for the sake of a cheap headline.

GRAHAM M McLEOD

The Muirs

Kinross