THE moor roads carnage is very shocking: in animal suffering, lack of owner recompense, and farcical speeds (Times, October 31). But speed limits generally are becoming redundant.

Motorists tear through Lamerton, for instance, this 30mph area of the B3362 a no-go for anyone on foot or any pet.

The car is an obsession. Going where you like at a moment's notice is considered a birthright, requiring four wheels per person not per family, regardless of the din from swollen car numbers roaring across our 'green and pleasant' land.

Ask about bus times and a rural resident is likely to reply in the vague tone of the superior being, 'I've no idea, I never use them' — an attitude that has helped to ensure the near-extinction of the bus, outside cities.

You can blind, incapacitate and ruin the life of another person by dangerous driving with total impunity.

Provided your weapon is a car, you can kill someone and go to prison for a very short time or not at all. The annual 2,000 deaths on the roads are rarely mentioned, so important is the car, and the motorist.

When something becomes dominant it makes its own rules. This is the key to the car culture.

Rosina Dalziel

Tavistock