And it is being advised to introduce road tolls not just in London but in the area in and around the M25 motorway.

The orbit transport study – funded by the Government – recommends that the zone should go 30 miles beyond the M25, reaching places like Southend, Reading and Brighton and should include traffic on ordinary roads as well as motorways.

The mistake in the report, produced by the transport consultancy Halliburton, is to recommend that, once money has been raised from the tolls, more roads and motorway lanes should be built!

This is nothing more than motorway madness.

If people are not to use their cars, a proper public transport network has to be created with the railway at its core.

The report suggests that some of the money raised should provide for airline-style bus services circling London. This sounds like a half-baked idea from a dodgy car dealer.

The obvious solution is to upgrade the existing rail network, to reopen lines like Luton-Dunstable, Cambridge-St Ives and build a new rail link from the east to serve Gatwick airport and make sure that the buses connect with the trains.

But the Strategic Rail Authority must also look at how to persuade the train operators to use the existing network to provide proper services instead of just providing services that make money for them.

If people are not to be forced into cars, there needs to be 24 hour rail services, more through running from one area to another and low fares.

The Government however has allowed the rail companies to introduce a massive fares increase - by changing the rules on network cards - in the very area where we are now told road traffic is so bad.

We need joined-up policy from Prime Minister Tony Blair, Chancellor Gordon Brown and Transport Secretary Alistair Darling.

We are not all in love with the car, certainly not the people suffering asthma, noise and danger as a direct result of governments encouraging car use. We want alternatives.