The Department for Infrastructure have urged those who work in Belfast City Centre to work from home one day a week to prevent congestion in the city.
In recent weeks the city centre has faced major congestion issues resulting from a number of factors including the closure of Durham Street and changes to the road layout on Great Victoria Street and the Grosvenor Road.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's The Nolan Show, Colin Woods from the Department for Infrastructure said that the road network is over capacity.
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"There isn't the physical space to try and put as many vehicles down these roads as possible so... the answer is to get more people on to public transport or to walk or cycle," he said.
"If people would use public transport or work from home one day a week even, you would start to see significant reductions in congestion."
Acknowledging a number of factors which have impacted the road network in recent weeks, Mr Woods said that the closure of Durham Street has had "a significant impact on traffic" and that the Department are trying to make changes where they can.
When it comes to Sydenham Bypass, Colin Woods said that the Department was concerned that it would need "emergency closures" if work did not go ahead this year.
"We have delayed that work from previous years precisely because we wanted to try and avoid the traffic impact, but this year we did not believe we could wait," he said.
"We will always act where we think it is necessary from a structural integrity perspective of the road and to protect safety."
Road users have also complained about now being unable to turn left from Great Victoria Street on to the Grosvenor Road, a move which Mr Woods said was for "pedestrian safety" and that the junction had to be remodelled to cope with the number of pedestrians leaving the new Grand Central Station.
"The best advice I can give is to think carefully about our journey choices, if we can take the train or bus, or walk or cycle into Belfast city centre," he said.
"If we do need to drive, and many people do for all sorts of reasons, try and avoid travelling at peak times or stagger our journeys because if there are fewer vehicles on the road the traffic will flow better.
"The other main thing is that if we are driving please don't block junctions or yellow boxes because they are there for a reason."
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