It was car-free day in Cork but you wouldn't believe it at first, as the early-morning rush got under way to beat the city-centre restrictions imposed from 7 a.m. Patrick Street was as busy as usual as motorists tried to get to work ahead of the car ban, but by 9 a.m. all the main streets were deserted except for the odd cyclist, bus and taxi.
Thousands of people availed of park-and-ride facilities laid on by the corporation, but unlike Dublin commuters, Cork bus-users had to pay. Gardai said most people obeyed the traffic restrictions. Retail outlets reported that after a slow start, Cork was as busy as ever on a Friday.
Car-Free Day brought peace to hundreds of towns across Europe but failed to have any impact on Britain's roads, the AA said. An AA spokeswoman said: "Traffic levels in the UK are the same as they are on any Friday morning. Our surveys show that more than half say they would not change their travel plans to support a car-free day." Just 10 of the 175 eligible local authorities signed up for the day, including five of the 33 London boroughs. In Paris 40 miles of roads were closed, city-centre shop owners recorded quieter business in Lyon, and the centre of Rome was shut off to traffic.