6 M SIMPKIN'S letter (You Say, April 14) regarding a report from the Transport Research Laboratory that said "bus lanes are a waste of space", is timely.

Behind the predictable euphoria over Perdiswell's first days are some interesting statistics. Usage of Perdiswell park-and-ride, on its first day, with no charges being levied on users, resulted in 200 cars being parked there, while 500 people took park-and-ride into Worcester.

According to published schedules, buses arrive every 10 minutes. That means 72 buses that ran from Perdiswell moved 500 people. That means an average of just seven people were on each bus into Worcester.

If the ratio of people to cars - at Perdiswell - is applied to city traffic, Worcester's 300,000 traffic movements a day resulted in 750,000 "people movements" around our city during that same day.

Thus Perdiswell park-and-ride, with all its effects upon city traffic, and all the millions of pounds its bus lanes and its facilities have cost, was used by just 0.06 per cent of the people who journeyed around our city in that one day. That is six " people movements" in every 10,000.

Anyone can do the maths on the back of the proverbial fag packet. On the basis of those statistics, how can Perdiswell be claimed to be a "success?"

N TAYLOR,

Worcester.