I am an inhabitant of maybe the most pedestrian-unfriendly city in the US, unless the film Death Race 2000 was set in Houston. I must agree with Adrian Chiles’s assessment of the new 20mph law (A 20mph speed limit seemed unfeasible – until I learned to love pootling along, 21 February). I regularly visit my mum in the Welsh village of Glanaman (a “blink and you’d miss it” town). On the introduction of the new law, I felt like the very fabric of time was slowing down while crossing the road to get my daily copy of the Guardian and a pack of wine gums. I merely strolled across rather than scampered. I’m with you, Adrian.
Richard Paulssen
Houston, Texas, US
An excellent article about pootling along. I regularly move over to let any driver behind me overtake so that I can pootle along. I have been driving for 69 years, and I look back longingly to the time, 65 years ago, when one could have the road to oneself – even the main road from Oxford to London on a Saturday afternoon – and go as slowly as seemed congenial. Usually about 40mph.
Peter Ellson
Bordezac, France
