I ONLY caught part of Channel 5's TV programme Cyclists: The Scourge of Our Streets? as I was travelling along the back road from Eldon to Newton Aycliffe, which is narrow with barely room for two cars to pass, let alone vans or trucks.

The show highlighted idiot road users on both sides, from the drivers just not seeing cyclists to an aggressive cyclist hogging the road and one cyclist who kept videoing, then confronting road users which a motor vehicle user cannot do as a cyclist does not have a registration plate through which they can be identified.

The narrator at the end of the show summed it up, saying we need a set of agreed rules enforced fairly on all road users.

Motor vehicle users perceive that cyclists are free loading, road hogging, unlegislated pests, as they appear to be able to get away with any amount of road violations.

Surely if the law states there needs to be 1.5 metres of clearance between cyclist and vehicle when passing, doesn't this apply to the cyclist who runs down the left (or right) side of you in a traffic queue?

For me the show highlighted the biggest problem is that most town and city roads are not large enough to cope with the size and capacity we currently have using them. Narrowing these roads to implement cycle paths is absurd.

I have no issues with responsible cyclists and believe they should be able to cycle, but motor vehicles and cyclists do not mix so don't force them to – invest in real solutions, real safe cycle routes.

Cyclists pay no road tax, no insurance and a significant number can't be seen in the dark and pay no attention to the rules of the road, and yet the vehicle driver is to blame for any incidents.

Get cyclists off our roads. Invest in the proper infrastructure for them so they are safe, and any incidents will then be down to idiot cyclists with no come back on the motorist.

Keith Howdle, Darlington