Is George Debono who wrote about Electric bicycles (TMID, 28 March) the same George Debono who was challenged in The Malta Independent not so long ago, to say if he had any pecuniary or financial interest in wind farms, because of his ultra fierce promotion of that kind of energy, and who did not give readers any answer?

Mr Debono jumps to conclusions too easily. I do not know which motorised bicycles the Odds and Ends column of 23 March referred to, but I know of motorised bicycles which operate on petrol – the polluting, two-stroke kind, too. They have a 50cc engine and can develop over 40 mph. There are Yamaha and Honda scooters with just that capacity and they have to be insured to take to the road.

These motorised bicycles should not be let loose on the roads uninsured. There are even pre-teen boys running around with them, and they even ride them the wrong way up one-way roads. A car could swerve to avoid such a rider, and hit a pedestrian, and who would foot the medical bill then? Or a car could swerve and cause structural damage to a house, because of a thoughtless boy riding pell mell on a motorised bicycle.

Are we to encourage such dangerous practices, to reduce traffic pollution?

C. Galea

Rabat