City of York Council's vision for greener, cleaner transport and less congestion has been boosted by figures in a new report showing a decline in car use across the city.

The new figures, in the council's first annual progress report on the council's five-year, £50m local transport plan, show that between 1999 and 2001 traffic congestion in York dropped by 4.6 percent.

The figures also show a major, 14 percent rise in bus use in York since First York launched its high-frequency Metro service - a key part of private sector investment in the LTP - in September of last year.

Leader of the council Councillor Dave Merrett said, "I am very pleased with these results. It's the product of a lot of hard work by the council and its partners including First York's big investment in the local bus network..

"But this success is also because the council has not fought shy of difficult and controversial choices or decisions over things like city centre pedestrianisation, increasing the amount of car parking using our city-edge park and ride sites, bus lanes, pedestrian facilities at key junctions and carefully managing the amount of city centre car parking over a long period.

"We're moving in the right direction but there is no room for complacency. We are well aware that there is an awful lot more to do as we move forward with the second half of our current five year plan and work up proposals to discuss with residents for the next one."

In the month the city's successful Park & Ride network was put into Sunday service for the first time, the figures also show that Park & Ride, which is operated for the council by First York, has gone from strength to strength - exceeding its targets.

The council's progress report also shows a huge, 36 percent increase in pedestrian journeys to the city centre.

Cycling in York - already with one of the highest cycle-to-work figures in the country - has stabilised at around 15 percent but the council has only recently launched a promotional campaign to boost cycling levels and unveiled a £1m package of improvements.

Colin Knight, the council's head of transport planning, said, "Residents in York tell us that they want us to tackle congestion in the city and the latest figures are very encouraging all round.

"These figures show that the LTP, which was backed by the public in one of the city's biggest-ever consultations, is pulling in the right direction and building on the successful measures the council had in place before.

"Clearly we are hoping that with more Park & Ride sites in the pipeline, more improvements to improve bus journey times and reliability and with more measures to make walking and cycling safer we can go on and build on these encouraging figures over the next four years of the plan."

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