A MAJOR investigation has been launched to find ways of easing the burden on motorists caught up in Southampton's traffic lights nightmare.

Transport bosses are fed up with queues of stationary cars clogging up the city's roads and have earmarked extra phasing of green lights to put an end to the stop-start traffic jams.

Tailbacks are a common sight at peak periods and earlier this year Southampton was singled out as one of the worst offenders in the country for congestion and rush hour chaos.

But the man in charge of transport policy at Southampton City Council is now locked in discussions to find ways of clearing the road jams faced by commuters on a daily basis.

One proposal includes stepping up the number of strategically timed traffic lights to speed up the flow of vehicles across the city.

A similar ploy was used by The Highways Agency earlier this year to ease congestion at the M27 and M271 junctions.

The extra phasing allows the lights to detect when traffic from one direction is heavier than the other, and to keep the lights at green for longer in that direction.

Cllr Gavin Dick said: "This is one of the key issues for my portfolio.

"At the moment the traffic lights have been cobbled together and what I'm asking officers to do is look at speeding the process up.

"We are not necessarily looking to get rid of the current system, but we are looking at how to speed it up and how traffic interacts.

"We are looking at signalling, filter lights and timing of traffic lights.

"The process also involves looking at how other councils do things.

"There are no firm proposals at the moment but it is something we will be bringing to the council during the course of the year."

Earlier this year Government figures revealed Southampton to have one of the worst rush hours in the country.

Cars were found to be crawling along at 16mph during rush hour - rising to just 21mph at quieter times.

Of the 18 largest cities in England, excluding London, average speeds at peak times were lowest in Southampton, Leicester and Bristol.

A meeting has been planned on Thursday when proposals and specific traffic hot spots in the city were due to be looked at in more detail.