THE leader of the Green Party of Manitoba says when you're stuck in traffic on Winnipeg's ever-busier streets this winter, your wrath should be directed at the NDP.

Markus Buchart said insufficient provincial funding for Winnipeg Transit has led to a sharp increase in the number of cars on the road and a sharp decline in the number of people who take the bus.

Winnipeg Transit fares were hiked a nickel on Jan. 1, marking the ninth annual five-cent increase to fares. It now costs an adult $1.80 to ride the bus.

Bus parts, gas and wages all contributed to rising operational costs for Winnipeg Transit, forcing the fare hike.

As fares went up, however, direct provincial funding for Winnipeg Transit went down over 1.5 per cent.

Between 1990 and 2002, the provincial grant to Transit decreased by more than $200,000, to just under $16.9 million.

He said the number of passenger cars registered in Winnipeg has increased 24 per cent since 1982, while bus ridership decreased 37 per cent. The car registrations do not include trucks or sport utility vehicles, or vehicles registered in the city's bedroom communities but which drive daily on city streets.

"If we keep going this way, traffic will not be able to move," Buchart said.

Buchart said if public transit was funded properly it would help transit work well enough to convince people to get out of their cars and board the bus.

Manitoba Energy Minister Tim Sale said Buchart's criticism is not legitimate. He said the province has increased its overall grant to the city by 10 per cent in the last three years, from $95 million in 2000 to $104.7 million in 2003.

He said only small parts of the grant are specifically designated funds -- including $16.9 million in 2003 for transit operations and $5 million for city street repairs. But Sale said the city can decide to spend the rest however it wants.

Sale also suggested the city should shoulder most of the blame for low ridership on city transit.

He said urban planning decisions by the city that allowed expansion of suburban shopping malls and the proliferation of big box stores, which are most easily accessible to people in cars, have to take a lot of blame. "An awful lot of how you move people in your city is how you plan your city," Sale said. "The issue is the urban design question."

Nobody from the city was made available to comment.