Oxford's motorists could be on the road to cleaner, greener living as on Friday many seemed to ditch their vehicles for Car Free Day.

An investigation carried out by the Oxford Mail showed an eight-mile journey into the city, starting at 8.30am, took 12 minutes less yesterday than it did on Thursday. More cyclists were spotted and traffic jams were not as lengthy in hotspots such as the Pear Tree Interchange, the Botley Interchange and Botley Road, Oxford.

A city council initiative, Car Free Day is aimed at encouraging drivers to use alternative methods of getting into the city, such as walking, cycling or using public transport.

Our investigation was carried out over two mornings and involved our reporters driving from north Oxford along Woodstock Road to the Wolvercote Roundabout and up to the Pear Tree Interchange to join the A34 heading towards Botley. Exiting the A34 at the Botley Interchange, we then drove - or crawled - along Botley Road before turning into Ferry Hinksey Road to get to the Oxford Mail's head offices in Osney Mead.

On Thursday, this journey took over 31 minutes, with 16 of them spent rarely travelling faster than 10mph on Botley Road.

Yesterday, the same journey took 19 minutes with significantly less traffic at Pear Tree and on Botley Road. A total of 62 cyclists were spotted on Thursday morning, while yesterday 70 were seen. This came as welcome news to Oxford city councillor Jean Fooks, the executive member for a cleaner city.

She said: "I am encouraged that it looks like people were getting to work without their cars yesterday."

City council spokesman Louisa Dean said: "We are pleased with how the day has gone.

We've had a very encouraging response to the event."