YORK'S roads have reached breaking point and new developments will make matters worse, the city's roads chief told the Evening Press today.

City of York Council highways boss Peter Evely warned that tough choices must be made in a bid to beat the gridlock.

But he revealed that York would not be adopting congestion charging to stop the city's 710km of roads coming to a standstill.

Speaking exclusively to the Evening Press, Mr Evely said it was time motorists took responsibility for the peak-time traffic chaos which has been generated by York's vibrant economy.

"The highways network in the city during the peak hours has reached capacity and we cannot get any more capacity out of it," he said.

"All that we are faced with if we don't do something is increasing delays, pollution and congestion. We must make some particularly hard choices. The time for cuddly solutions is gone."

Mr Evely said one in five York peak-time journeys is a school run.

"We estimate that if we take one in 15 journeys off the road, our problems would be solved," he said. "Imagine if we can cut the school run, or get every 15th person to share.

"That is what I mean by it is time for hard choices to be made. Unless people realise that if they are going to travel by car in the peak hours, the roads will be busy, we are not going to get anywhere.

"It's about taking responsibility for your own actions. It doesn't mean that the car is a bad thing. It has often been misrepresented that people like myself are trying to attack the car. In its place, the car is an excellent thing.

"If people would just use something else then we would all be better off, and what we need to get across to Joe Public is that they are responsible for the solution."

Mr Evely said it was more difficult than many people thought to use planning rules to prevent new developments on the grounds that they would produce more traffic. He stressed that City of York Council was at the forefront in using new technology to cut traffic jams.

But he said that congestion charging was not an option for York. "We don't have enough viable public transport alternatives," he said.

Instead, there are plans to expand the Park & Ride scheme, which currently cuts two million journeys a year at no expense to the taxpayer, and bring in more intelligent bollards.

In addition, local people are presently being consulted on controversial plans to create York's first toll road in Heslington Lane, Fulford.

An AA spokeswoman said today that public transport had failed to keep pace with modern life, and needed to be improved to meet the needs of parents and commuters better before motorists were penalised.

However, people might need to fundamentally reappraise their lives, changing their working hours, working from home more or using telephone conferences instead of meetings.

The council is currently consulting on updates to the Local Transport Plan. Transport executive member Coun Ann Reid has already warned York residents they face tough choices on transport.

Updated: 10:39 Tuesday, April 27, 2004