Traffic around the State was worse than usual today, despite a one-day event designed to encourage people to leave their cars at home.
AA Roadwatch said reports from counties around Ireland indicated that traffic had been bad everywhere.
However, a spokeswoman said she believed bad weather to be the main culprit and indicated that European Car-Free Day had not had an effect on the traffic one way or another.
"I don't think it had anything to do with car-free day. The traffic in Dublin was really badly backed up from early today and the M50 was a nightmare." Traffic reports from around other counties painted a similar picture, with particular problems on the Naas Road and around Kildare.
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The M50, Dublin's still incomplete c-ring motorway, is one of the worst traffic blackspots during rush-hour. Its notorious congestion persisted today despite the official opening by the Taoiseach yesterday of a second toll bridge on the motorway.
The AA Roadwatch spokeswoman said: "Monday is always the worst day anyway, but I think a lot of the colleges were also back today - up to now it was just school traffic."Meanwhile, campaigners in Dublin were in "mourning" for what they see as Dublin City Council's lack of commitment to reducing congestion in the capital.
The council has organised some low-key events to mark European Car Free Day today, but all roads are open to traffic as normal, with the exception of O'Connell Street where restrictions will be in place for a "Repaint the Streets" rally beginning at 5 p.m.
The event is organised by the Critical Mass and Reclaim the Streets groups in response to what they say is an unsatisfactory response to the car-free day which is part of European Mobility Week.
Participants at today's event - which takes place at the Spire - are encouraged, according to the organisers' website, to bring brushes and paint to create "much-needed improvements", such as bike lanes, zebra crossings and warning signs.
Mr Brendan Sheehan of the Dublin Cycling Campaign said he felt "sorrow rather than anger" at the council's level of interest.
"The Dublin Cycling Campaign are extremely disappointed at the failure by the city council again to respond to the needs of the hundreds of thousands of cyclists, pedestrians and public transport users to have even a small sample of what the city could be like without motorised vehicles," Mr Sheehan said.
Dublin Bus offered passengers free travel between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. today to promote its service.
In other parts of the country, road closures will be in place in Limerick city, Tralee, Killarney and Athlone between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Galway's Eyre Square will be 50 per cent pedestrianised over the same time period.
Seven streets in Waterford will be car free from 11 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., and streets will be car free in Kilkenny and Clonakilty between 12 p.m. and 6 p.m.