EAST Lancashire MP Peter Pike has warned that toll roads and car sharing are the only way to tackle the traffic jams which have stopped him driving regularly from his Burnley constituency to Westminster.

The veteran politician said he was initially opposed to charging for driving but holidays in France in the 1980s started to change his mind.

And he said that all road users needed to think about how to tackle the problem as boosting public transport was simply not enough.

In the House Magazine -- Parliament's weekly journal -- Mr Pike said: "In the UK we have enjoyed toll free roads for many years, and at one time I would have been opposed to the concept of re-introducing tolls on roads in the UK.

"However, in the 1980s I began holidaying twice a year in the South of France, driving there and back.

"Much of the motorway network there operates on a toll basis. The tolls were -- on the whole -- run smoothly, affordable and the motorways well kept."

"Car use is increasing and congestion is a growing problem.

"I am a keen advocate for increasing use and capacity of public passenger transport, but that alone is not the answer to tackling our congestion problems."

Mr Pike concluded: "There are no easy answers. Perhaps all road users -- from hauliers to road passenger transport companies, to private car users and other interest groups -- need to be looking beyond their own specialist interests and instead talk about road use in general and how all these different vehicles can share the same roads in future.