IN response to high fuel prices, may I suggest that car drivers do something more radical than avoiding petrol stations on one day a week and save money by leaving the car at home that day?

This would be good not only for their pocket but for their health, not to mention the ozone layer, local asthma sufferers, vulnerable road crossers -- elderly folk, children, pets -- and all whose lives are blighted by the noisy, sometimes raging arrogance of too many at the wheel.

For far too long, public planning and business decisions have been subservient to the mighty motoring lobby, so that whether we live in town or country, the many people who don't own a vehicle have been treated as second class citizens.

There are some on modest incomes who, through disability and/or a genuine lack of public transport options, need the use of a car and struggle when fuel prices rise. A council tax rebate has been suggested as one way of overcoming this. But the genuinely needy are not being championed by a couple of wealthy individuals setting up a website on behalf of the 'oppressed motorist.'

Comparisons with other fuel tax levels in Europe are odious, as the UK has far lower rates of income tax, and chooses to fund our health, education and other services from indirect taxes -- such as those on petrol, alcohol and tobacco. It might well be fairer to raise income tax instead.

By and large, the Government has got it about right on fuel charges. Lately, there have been notable increases in public transport use and a rush of drivers converting to more fuel-efficient cars or to less polluting fuel such as LPG.

At the same time, we need to see fuel tax being spent on better public transport and making walking and cycling more attractive. Freight needs more rail and waterways investment.

Politicians who cave in to road lobbyists over schemes such as those still proposed for the North West (which include widening the M6) need to learn the lessons of history.

FRANK KENNEDY, Regional Campaigns Co-ordinator, Friends of the Earth, North West, Duke Street, Liverpool.