You headline a recent letter 'Lazy jaywalkers putting themselves at risk' (South China Morning Post, August 25). However, pedestrians crossing the road risk only their own lives. Those in control of lethal machinery - car, bus and truck drivers - constantly put the lives of others at risk. Motor vehicles kill hundreds and maim thousands in Hong Kong annually and the cause is not 'jaywalking' but speeding and dangerous driving.

Only one family in seven owns a car in Hong Kong. But our environment is increasingly dominated by this small minority. Pedestrians resent bullying car, bus, truck and taxi drivers routinely going too fast, turning aggressively into walkers' paths when crossing at sideroads, spouting fumes from idling engines and other abuses. Roadside barriers are designed to make those on foot walk even further so that drivers can be given greater opportunity to go faster.

Most pedestrians wait surprisingly patiently on inadequate overcrowded pavements subjected to stress, noise, heat, and polluting stink from motor vehicles. At major crossing points, thousands of pedestrians per hour are subjected to this treatment while lights give priority to only a few hundred vehicles, mostly single-occupant private cars and taxis. No wonder some pedestrians decide to cross the road at their own personal risk rather than accept such discriminatory treatment.