Traffic in Brighton and Hove could grind to a halt within five years.

The city council fears total gridlock is inevitable unless radical action is taken to reduce car use.

It hopes new schemes would lure people away from private cars and on to more environmentally-sustainable public transport.

But transport group AA Motoring Trust warned congestion could only be tackled if motorists were persuaded alternatives to the car were reliable.

It says convincing people public transport is a better option than taking the car is the only way to make the council's scheme work. That, it says, is the biggest challenge facing transport officers in the coming years.

In a report published yesterday Brighton and Hove City Council warned: "If nothing is done to discourage dependency on private vehicles the council's transport model estimates the additional demand created by the developments will contribute to highway network capacity being exceeded by 16 per cent in 2010."

Proposed schemes include:

Rapid transport - A high-speed bus service carrying passengers across the city in minutes and stopping only at major destinations and population centres.

Green buses - new low-emission hybrid electric buses.

Park-and-ride - An out-of-town 900-space car park in Patcham from which motorists would catch a bus into the city centre.

Congestion charge - Councillors have not ruled out a London-style congestion charge but hope the success of other schemes would make it unnecessary.

Councillors have been asked to back a bid for Government funding to build a park-and-ride scheme in northern Brighton and a high-speed bus system to transport passengers quickly between a small number of the city's major destinations and population centres. Labour's environment councillor Gill Mitchell said if the city did nothing, it risked the prospect of gridlock.

She said: "The status quo is not an option. Car ownership is still rising in Brighton and Hove and although we have been developing a sustainable transport system in the city we have to be more radical.

"We want to be able to hold major events in the future but it's also about keeping the city moving on a and being a healthy and attractive place to live, work and shop."

She said the schemes were essential for dealing with the extra strain planned major developments such as the King Alfred Centre in Hove and the Brighton Marina tower would place on the city's overcrowded roads.

There are already more than 100,000 cars and vans in Brighton and Hove and thousands more enter the city every day, vying for parking spaces and causing chaos every time there is a large event.

The council believes some of Brighton and Hove's major roads are already overcapacity and points to last month's London to Brighton bike ride when congestion brought traffic to a standstill.

Officers predict the number of vehicle journeys made every day will increase by 7.5 per cent by 2010, frequently bringing the main routes through the city to a standstill.

The council has not ruled out introducing a congestion charge like London's but has chosen to prioritise schemes which keep cars out of the city centre.

West Sussex County Council is also exploring schemes to cut the number of cars clogging up its roads.

It has already introduced a high-speed bus service in Crawley and a park-and-ride scheme in Horsham.

Brighton and Hove's proposals were welcomed in principle by the AA, environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth and Sussex Enterprise, which represents businesses in the county.

The funding bids for the park-and-ride and bus schemes will be considered at a meeting of the council's policy and resources committee next Wednesday.