When Labour came to power five years ago, the party made some promises which it has tried to keep.

Real efforts have been made to improve education and it has had to abandon taxation policy to pump more money into the NHS. But it has failed badly on transport.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who was then in charge of the environment, pledged traffic flows would decrease.

In fact they rose by roughly the same percentage they have each year under successive governments, Labour and Tory, since the Second World War. He promised jam today and we got jams tomorrow.

When will it all stop? We live in one of the most crowded countries in the world and, here in Sussex, we are in one of the most crowded parts of it. We have more vehicles per mile in Britain than almost anywhere else and locally we have double the national average.

It cannot be allowed to continue because there simply is not room for all the cars, lorries and vans people want to drive.

While a car is the only way to travel any distance in remote areas of northern Scotland, it certainly is not in Sussex, where traffic is rapidly choking towns to death and spoiling the countryside.

Walk along the seafront in Hastings and it is a solid mass of cars. Travel along the A27 in Worthing and a pleasant tree-lined road is a torrent of traffic. The Saddlescombe Road north of Brighton, a quiet lane 30 years ago, is now an alternative gateway into the city.

There are traffic jams on the M25 from early in the morning until late at night, with traffic levels twice the original estimate.

Widening it in the busiest sections cost millions and has not made an iota of difference. It simply proved the first rule of road building, which is that traffic expands to fill the space available.

Yet most people would rather stay in their cars and vans, breathing in fumes and stuck in queues, than try the alternative of walking, cycling or using public transport, for reasons which include speed, comfort and safety.

It is this problem the Government must tackle before Sussex stumbles to a halt, followed slowly by the rest of the country.

Making the alternative attractive can make a difference. The east coast main railway line, Britain's best, is packed to capacity most of the time because it offers fast, comfortable trains.

Cities such as York and Peterborough have a proper network of cycle lanes which encourage people to get on their bikes. Pedestrian quarters such as those in Chichester have worked well while Brighton's bus lanes have encouraged more people to use public transport each year.

Yet there are constant obstacles to progress. What's the good of providing a cycle lane by the A23, as was done a decade ago, when the route is awkward, fume-filled and ugly?

Why have a Network Card for off-peak rail travel in the South-East and then introduce a minimum charge while abandoning the flat fare for children?

Why order new trains for the South-East which are like sardine cans, unable to guarantee space for either cyclists or wheelchairs?

Why do councils stand by and watch the disintegration of bus services while doing little to stop it?

The Government is afraid of offending the car-owning majority and causing trouble with the powerful vested interests in the oil and motor companies.

Its leaders are chauffeured around the country and are oblivious to the daily transport troubles afflicting most people.

Forty years ago, Professor Colin Buchanan in a paper on traffic described the car as the monster we adore. Yet Government policy since that time has made people more rather than less dependent on those monsters.

Tony Blair and his chums need to be as radical on transport as they have been on health to give this country the sort of system that is commonplace in continental European countries.

They will find that while there are many vocal Mr Toad-type motorists who will stay in their cars until their legs drop off, millions more will willingly try other forms of transport if they are made truly tempting.