Major employers are being targeted in a campaign to prevent commuters bringing the roads of Brighton and Hove to a choking standstill.

Traffic jams and parking problems have become a fixture of everyday life for thousands of people who drive to work in the city.

Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership (BHEP) wants companies to encourage staff to share lifts, cycle or catch a train or bus instead.

It has employed travel consultants to go into companies, research staff travel habits and devise plans to cut the number travelling to work by car each day.

There are inducements, including discounted bus tickets and interest-free loans to buy bicycles and install showers, to encourage businesses to get involved.

This month BHEP will distribute 40,000 leaflets to offices across the city explaining the benefits of adopting greener means of getting to work.

There will be sections on walking, cycling, using the bus and car-sharing. Companies are also being asked to pledge to draw up their own staff travel plan by the end of the year.

Finance company GMAC, EDF Energy, Legal & General, American Express, Lloyds TSB, City College Brighton and Hove and Brighton and Hove City Council have backed the scheme.

Tony Mernagh, executive director of BHEP, said: "The congestion caused by single-occupancy cars is not going to get any better unless we tackle it now.

"If car use continues to rise at this rate then vehicles will be moving around at a snail's place, choking up the city and ruining our air quality.

"We know we can't make people change their mode of transport but we can make them more aware of the options."

Legal & General, based in Montefiore Road, Hove, was forced to look into staff travel arrangements when parking restrictions were introduced outside its office in 2003.

At first the lack of staff parking seemed disastrous but when it was realised most staff lived locally managers decided to contact Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company.

The bus company organised two services which ran during peak times and dropped staff outside the company's offices. Legal & General was able to buy cheap tickets in bulk, which it then sold to its employees at a ten per cent discount.

Carole Minter, facilities manager at GMAC, in Church Street, Brighton, has set up a car-sharing scheme using the company's intranet.

The city's biggest employer, the council, has pledged to produce a staff travel plan by October.

Friday July 02, 2004