YORK'S roads are getting safer and less congested as more people swap their cars for the bus, new council figures show.

Traffic on York's roads has been cut by 2.5 per cent, so City of York Council is on target to meet its target of a four per cent cut by 2006.

The number of people being killed or seriously injured on roads in the City of York area has dropped from 139 to 116, a cut of 15 per cent.

Public transport use increased massively last year, with use of Park & Ride up by 18 per cent to 1.8 million passengers, and bus use up by at least 13 per cent.

The figures come from the annual progress report on City of York Council's Local Transport Plan (LTP).

Ann Reid, the council's executive member for transport, said: "These are excellent results. They underpin the national recognition that the LTP has received.

"This is down to the hard work of officers and the results show we are going on the right course, but there is always more to do."

Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing, Labour spokeswoman for transport, said: "I want to pay tribute to the council staff who have made this happen.

"They have worked long and hard to make the LTP work, and this has already been recognised by York being named local transport authority of the year. This report once again demonstrates their achievements."

The LTP is the council's statutory plan for transport and is due to run until 2005/06.

Updated: 09:45 Friday, June 27, 2003