Traffic jams have fallen by a quarter in London since the congestion charge was extended westwards, the transport commissioner has claimed.

But Peter Hendy admitted that the number of snarl-ups had increased in areas where building work was taking place.

He said work to increase pavement sizes, build bus lanes and replace water mains was causing disruption across the city.

"If we had the volumes of traffic within the zone that were there before the scheme started, we would be in serious trouble now," he said.

"Another 70,000 cars a day in the current conditions would be far, far worse."

Overall traffic has fallen by 10 to 15 per cent and congestion has been cut by 25 per cent since the scheme was extended into Kensington and Chelsea last year.

There were fears that traffic would increase in the original zone as residents in the new area used their discounts to drive through both. But Mr Hendy said this had not happened and that drivers would be in "serious trouble" without both zones.

"We have not seen the sort of increase in traffic in the central zone that people were afraid of," he told the Financial Times.

The commissioner's defence of the congestion scheme comes after the Mayor unveiled a £500million drive to boost cycling across the capital.

Ken Livingstone yesterday said thousands of "hire and ride" bikes would be introduced to stimulate a 400 per cent increase in cyclists and to cut congestion.

The scheme is modelled on the successful Velib system in Paris, and will see 6,000 bikes parked in docking stations 300 yards apart.

Figures from Transport for London show the numbers of people commuting by car into central London in weekday rush hours are down only slightly. The main effect of the charge has been on buses and cycling.

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