• OXFORD Street suffers continuous “be-beeps” when No 98 buses are around, to the irritation of many drivers, passengers and pedestrians.

This is a TfL-inspired Metroline safety pilot “to raise awareness of vehicles approaching vulnerable road users such as pedestrians”.

The be-beeps must be “discernible over ambient traffic noise, particularly in busy shopping high streets which attract significant numbers of road vehicles”.

I have tried, but failed to receive answers to the following:

• If there already is significant traffic noise, why does anyone think the visually impaired would then be aiming to cross the road?

• If the reasoning is that, soon, most vehicles will be quiet electric, ought they not all to be-beep, leading to a cacophony of beeping confusion? Does that help anyone?

Instead of unnecessarily adding to traffic’s acoustic melee, supplemented these days by large amplifiers, loudspeakers and drum kits, the visually impaired could be supplied with simple devices that beep or vibrate when registering traffic on a road to be crossed.

Indeed we already have an easier equivalent. I believe they are called pelican crossings.

PETER CAVE
W1