Han Ximin

    ximhan@126.com

    THE city’s traffic saw no signs of improvement and the streets were still crowded during rush hour yesterday compared with previous Mondays even though car owners could have taken public transportation for free. Yesterday was World Car-free Day.

    At around 8 a.m., vehicles jammed at Buji Checkpoint extended for about 1 kilometer, and many drivers interviewed said they didn’t know about the car-free day.

    “There are no traffic accidents, but Buji Checkpoint and Nigang Road were crowded with vehicles,” said Yu Hongkai, deputy chief of the Donghu unit of Luohu District’s public security subbureau.

    Police monitors showed no traffic improvement at Meilin and Buji checkpoints during rush hour.

    At Metro stations, some residents used their vehicle licenses for free subway rides, the first time that the city had offered such free rides on a Car-free Day.

    “I left home early to take the Metro and don’t need to worry about congestions and being late to the office because of the punctuality of Metro services,” a resident surnamed Yang said at Baishizhou Station on Luobao Line.

    According to Deng Xiaolin, an employee on duty with Baishizhou Station, more than 20 residents registered with their vehicle licenses for free rides in just half an hour yesterday morning.

    In a survey conducted by www.sznews.com of more than 629 respondents, nearly one-third chose to drive on Car-free Day, but 49 percent said they would use public transport.

    The survey showed that 24.8 percent didn’t care about Car-free Day, and 53 percent thought Car-free Day was just an empty form without substantial content, but that green commuting should be encouraged.

    Fifty-one percent of respondents said they would quit using their cars in favor of free transportation, and 48.19 percent said they would still use their cars despite free Metro and bus rides.