Belgium Europe's car-free day got off to a symbolic start in the heart of the continent yesterday, with the Rond Point Schuman in Brussels clogged by cyclists instead of the trucks that blocked roads during last week's petrol protests.
Nine of the 11 European commissioners in town walked or cycled to their offices and hundreds of more junior Eurocrats did the same, despite a lack of bike racks outside their offices.
"This is to raise awareness to what's happening to our urban environment," said the Swedish environment commissioner, Margot Wallstrom. "We want to discuss climate change, noise levels and air pollution."
But the Brussels-based International Automobile Federation dismissed the event as a "public relations gimmick". For motorists battered by spiralling fuel costs, the car-free day would "add insult to injury", said the director general, David Ward.
"The simple fact is that many people have no alternative to using their cars when faced with overcrowded and inefficient public transport," he said.
Ian Black in Brussels
France Some 67 French towns and cities took part with varying degrees of enthusiasm in the country's third annual In Town Without My Car day.
But faced with growing complaints that the event was little more than a conscience-cleansing publicity stunt by the government, police manning roadblocks in many city centres were less strict than in previous years and in Paris, where just four roads and one quarter were partially closed, the overall traffic volume dropped by only 10%.
Marseille's measures proved the most effective, but also prompted the most voluble protests: in one of the few French towns served by three motorways, cutting off the city centre to traffic caused mammoth tailbacks.
"They tell people to explore alternative means of transport, but there damn well aren't any in the outskirts of Marseille," said Pierre Maquart, a computer salesman.
Jon Henley in Paris
Germany Even in Germany, where the Greens are in government, car-free day made little impact. The project was also a flop in neighbouring Austria which yesterday saw a full-blown traffic jam in the capital, Vienna.
Some 170 town and city administrations in Germany had called on motorists not to drive to work. They accounted for about a quarter of all the local authorities taking part across Europe. But the majority of Germans ignored the call.
From Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart, traffic police reported a normal flow of vehicles. A spokesman for the Hamburg police called it "just like any other Friday". In Berlin, where the council had dodged the issue by shifting "car-free day" to Sunday, Greens staged a protest at the Brandenburg gate.
John Hooper in Berlin
Greece Yesterday's car-free initiative brought respite from a pall of brownish-yellow smog that had been hanging over the city since Wednesday, when pollution approached emergency levels.
There was something of a carnival atmosphere in the normally traffic-clogged Greek capital as the government declared a car-free zone in the so-called "historic triangle", which includes the Acropolis and the ancient Agora. Public transport throughout Athens was free, while bicycles were available in the downtown area.
More than 60 towns and cities across Greece also participated in the event.
Michael Howard in Athens
Israel A rare silence reigned in central Tel Aviv, normally one large traffic snarl-up, on Israel's first no-car event yesterday. Despite predictions in most Israeli newspapers that the experiment would fizzle, few dared to break the ban on private transport in the centre of the city.
Fridays are considered a semi-official day off in Israel, with the Jewish sabbath beginning at sunset, and many people in Tel Aviv simply started the weekend early.
"I can sit in my home and there is no noise," said Rachel Horam, an activist with the committee for public transportation.
"Everyone was complaining beforehand that they could not manage without cars, but now they are walking the streets, they can see the benefit of it all."
Suzanne Goldenberg
