This has had a hitherto unnoticed effect. The political will to tackle congestion in our towns and cities is being eroded in council buildings everywhere. Just as turkeys don't vote for Christmas, local authorities seem reluctant to make voters pay for the needless school run or the half-mile morning commute.

Road pricing in urban areas is as inevitable as the motorway was in the 1950s. We've reached a crisis point, with road congestion affecting both the economy and the environment. We're getting nowhere fast – or rather, grinding slowly in plumes of carbon monoxide.

We know the Department for Transport figures – 33 million registered vehicles on the road in 2005 (seven million up on 1996); one in four car journeys is less than two miles. The Eddington report estimated that by 2025 congestion could cost road users between £22bn and £24bn more than today, including a £12bn sting to business. It's grim.

If Americans regard gun ownership as a constitutional right, we Britons are almost as fanatical about cars. Nevertheless, while motorists sit furiously gripping their steering wheels, resisting any attempt to prise them away, we're all missing the point. Road pricing in urban areas has to happen; we have to change our relationship with the car; but the key thing is – and this is what has been missed – it cannot and must not happen in isolation. Road pricing on its own will solve nothing – the key consideration is to use it to bring real choice back into our commuting habits.

We also need the political will to get this across. Road pricing is one cog in a complete overhaul of our urban transport infrastructure. There's no point charging the humble driver to drive on city roads at peak times if public transport infrastructure – from bus to rail, cycle path to pedestrian walkway – isn't first class. This needs real up-front investment to encourage us all to change our mode of transport. We just need a slight change in our habits and the benefits to our environment will be huge. If we can get people to work in 20 minutes on a bus, cheaply, reliably and safely, then 40 minutes stuck in our cars would make sense to no one.

It will take real deter-mination at local level, and reluctance to adapt will cause huge problems for local authorities in the long term. From 2008, up to £200m will be available a year through the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) to develop local transport schemes. What's more, the signs from central government are that, by 2010, all local authorities will have to adhere to TIF rules (road pricing, workplace parking charges etc) if they are to receive any funding for public transport initiatives.

But local authorities still seem reluctant to adapt, with just 10 local areas having applied for the first round of TIF funding, which is up for grabs in July. The debate is focused so narrowly on the public reaction to (and political fallout from) road pricing that we are failing to see the bigger picture – that road pricing is just part of a solution for revolutionising transport infrastructure, minimising the problems caused by congestion, improving road safety, supporting urban regeneration and, most important, giving commuters fast and efficient public transport.

It's about choice, not charging, with good reliable information to make that choice. And political will is vital if we are to get this message across and get moving again.

Jonathan Goring is managing director of Capita Symonds,a road-user pricing consultancy, which worked on the implementation of the London Congestion Charging Scheme. He is currently involved in the Cardiff Transportation Partnership