Only Taiwan showed any enthusiasm for the scheme, which saw 1,000 mostly European towns and cities pledging to encourage drivers to leave their cars at home and use public transport over the next three weeks.

Cities Taipei, Hsinchu and Nantou joined eight counties to promote the campaign in Taiwan, with thousands of people riding, skating or walking through cordoned boulevards in marches supporting a clean environment.

In the capital Taipei on Sunday Mayor Ma Ying-jeou led a bicycle ride through the city to a pro-environment rally in front of the city hall.

"No driving, easier walking," Ma said marking "International Car-Free day in Taipei".

Monday was dubbed "Public Transportation Day", and Ma cycled to a subway station to take the train to the office, urging the public to follow suit. In support, the subway offered 50-percent fare discounts and some buses were free.

Despite the fanfare, observers said traffic throughout Taipei appeared as heavy as usual, with some areas in the east choked with drivers flocking to a major exhibition.

Elsewhere, the response was muted. In China, where modernisation has seen car ownership increase 77 percent so far this year alone, there was no let up in the congestion that grinds daily through the country's major cities.

On Sunday some 500 cylists gathered at a Beijing park in support of car-free day but organisers said they could have attracted more.

"If we had 5,000 people, I'm not sure the police would have approved," Beijing Bicycle Association head Zhang Lihua told AFP, referring to tight controls on protests in China.

Although car-free day has been observed in Japan since 2000 no events were held in Tokyo, with officials blaming a halt in funding from the city government.

"This year, we don't are not marking car-free day due to the abolition of the grant from the Tokyo metropolitan government, " said Tokyo Car-free Day committee spokesman Isao Okamoto.

In traffic-clogged Bangkok, there were hopes its Car-Free Day would reduce pollution, and Apicahi Chavajarnpun, director-general of the government's Pollution Control Department, said early signs were encouraging.

"Today we have had reports from the Bangkok Mass Transit System that its ridership rose 23 percent," Apicha said.

In Indonesia's capital Jakarta Sunday, a one-kilometer (half-mile) stretch of the usually busy Thamrin-Sudirman Avenue was closed and a carnival set up along it by NGO Mitra Emisi Bersih (Clean Emission Partner) to promote the initiative.

Ironically, media had warned motorists all week to leave cars at home on Sunday not to ease pollution, but to prevent congestion around the closed road.

However, neither stopped motorists fleeing the city and causing a four-hour traffic jam south of the city in the process.

While Pakistan held no events, a spokesman for the Environment Protection Agency there said it hoped to hold a smoke-free day in the near future.

Singapore, however, pointedly refused to join the event.

"Singaporeans are very car-loving people that depend a lot on their cars so instead of just focusing on going car-free, for those who need to use their cars, we teach them how to maintain their cars better," said Environment Council executive director Howard Shaw.

TERRA.WIRE