Despite high-profile support from the chief executive and senior officials, the city's first Car-Free Day saw little change in the number of cars running on Hong Kong's roads.
Some 20,361 cars used the three cross-harbour tunnels during morning peak hour between 7am and 10am yesterday, down by about only 100 cars compared to the Tuesday before last, the Transport Department said. A typhoon minimised traffic last Tuesday.
That came after more than 18,000 commuters from 72 organisations pledged to ground their cars or use public transport on World Car-free Day yesterday, according to the event's local organiser, Greenpeace.
Despite the result, Greenpeace said it had raised public awareness of climate protection through less car usage and it would consider lining up with public transport operators to co-host the event for better results.
'We can't set the goal too high in the first year as the people making pledges were just a small number of the total number of car owners,' Greenpeace campaigner Prentice Koo Wai-muk said.
The Transport Department said vehicle queues on major roads were as long as usual yesterday, although spokesmen for City Bus and First Bus said they could not rule out the possibility that the car-free event had increased demand for bus services in Siu Sai Wan and Lee Tung.