It was a case of good news and bad news for Shanghai's car-free day on Monday.

While it was an unusually smooth traffic flow on downtown Sichuan N.Road  - the route selected as a no-go zone for private vehicles - increased congestion occurred on nearby roads, suggesting that many people ignored the green initiative.

Traffic police shut off entrances to Sichuan N. Road at its crossings with Tiantong and Dongbaoxing roads at 9am yesterday for six hours on the 2-kilometer stretch as the city observed World Car-Free Day.

During the period only bicycles, taxies, passenger buses and emergency vehicles were allowed on this section of road where cyclists are generally not allowed.

Large and high banners were flying above both the intersections at Tiantong and Dongbaoxing roads.

Hongkou District traffic police placed 34 officers and nearly 100 assistants on duty along Sichuan N. Road to help with the campaign.

Drivers were constantly told by the officers and assistants to make detours.

Traffic assistants were also on hand outside commercial buildings along the street, directing vehicles coming from inside the complexes to Sichuan Road to return and leave from the back exits.

"I have never seen this street this quiet," a Dazhong taxi driver said yesterday morning. "Usually this street is always crowded with cars in the daytime and traffic is so slow.''

Traffic police said the closure of Sichuan N. Road substantially affected traffic on nearby Tiantong, Dongbaoxing and Wusong roads.

The traffic authorities did not announce any estimate about how many motorists had responded to the call to quit driving yesterday.

By last month, the number of locally registered cars rose to 1.3 million and is increasing.

Shanghai is also home to more than 10 million bicycles and mopeds.

Though the bicycle is an ideal tool for green traffic, some cyclists feel left out in the cold.

"Many downtown roads now only service vehicles," said a city cyclist, surnamed Wang.

"And the designated downtown routes for bikes are increasingly scaled down. It's tough work now to ride a bike to commute from one downtown spot to another.

"There should be amore convenient road network for cyclists downtown, otherwise a car-free campaign is just contradictory."

(Shanghai Daily September 23, 2008)