In the article Bus route safety is an embarrassment' (Times Series, April 3) resident Alison Fryer is quoted as saying "everyone wants the bus re-routed" and "buses mount the pavement and cause countless damage to residents' vehicles".

Any junior student starting a study of statistics learns the mantra "Who says it? Why do they say it? And how do they know?". As Alison Fryer well knows (as she organised it), at a public meeting in Strafford Road in April 2007, most attendees supported the bus route. Cars, vans and lorries mount the pavements too and there are a huge number more of them than buses. If you want to talk statistics about damage, maybe we should consider probability theory, which is the next lesson in the statistics class.

As for the cynical comments by Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers and Councillor Brian taxi-king' Coleman against Transport for London, could there be an election in the offing?

Local buses should be seen as part of the solution not the problem. I think the improvement in local buses in recent years is wonderful - get out of your cars and use them.

Dennis Bir, Alston Road, Barnet