THE discussion led by Leeds North-West Labour MP Harold Best well illustrated the problems and pitfalls that we face in the future of transport, both public and private.

The long and short of the transport situation we face is that the road network was not designed to deal with and cannot deal with the volume of traffic that uses it.

When car ownership was growing, the increased mobility of the population and the phenomenon of the second-car family was greeted as a benefit of modern life.

Now we are seeing the problems of increased pollution, congestion, road accidents and increasing frustration as our roads become clogged with traffic.

Mr Best says that the situation is a complex one, and this is probably putting it mildly.

Bus services could be enhanced - and by a significant margin, but it is very difficult once people have the use of a car, to persuade them not to use it to make their life as easy as possible.

Some might opt to cycle to work, but then any motorist who is travelling to meet a deadline, such as an appointment, can tell of the apparent danger that cyclists can be in.

And while some of us who are more socially conscious might choose this option, there is a hard core of motorists who would not dream of it.

One of the unfortunate elements of life today is an apparent selfishness, and this is a symptom of it.

Perhaps one of the more interesting suggestions that could bear fruit is the variation of times of the start of school days and/or working days.

Another suggestion, one which no-one seems yet to consider, is that of making car ownership more difficult, bearing in mind that certain sections of society distinguished by age seem to be responsible for a disproportionate number of road accidents.

Whatever the solution, we cannot expect to heap more and more traffic onto the roads without facing dire consequences.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.