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Did you take your car out for a spin in the city on Sunday? If you did, you may have noticed less traffic on the streets as the capital marked its 35th Car Free Day.

“Car Free Day helps a lot with reducing pollution in the city,” said Rina Suryani, who heads the monitoring of natural resources at the Jakarta Environmental Management Board (BPLHD).

She said the latest measurements taken on Sunday showed that Car Free Day reduced dust particles by up to 40 percent, carbon monoxide by 63 percent and nitrogen monoxide by 71 percent.

Car Free Day is part of the Jakarta Green & Clean 2010 campaign, which is aimed at tackling air pollution.

Three years ago, the Jakarta city administration introduced Car Free Day on the last Sunday of every month along Jalan Sudirman and Jalan Thamrin.

Beginning this month, however, other locations such as Old Town in West Jakarta, Jalan Rasuna Said in South Jakarta, Boulevard Artha Gading in North Jakarta, Jalan Pemuda in East Jakarta and Jalan Letjen Suprapto in Central Jakarta will also hold car-free days at least twice a year.

The Jakarta Green & Clean event was attended by hundreds of people on Sunday and included stage performances, games and quizzes.

It was held in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Program, the Committee Against Leaded Gasoline (KPBB) and other organizations such as the Indonesian Clean Air Forum (FUBI).

“If we measure the area one week before and after Car Free Day, the reduction [in pollution] is really significant,” said Ahmad Safrudin, chairman of the KPBB.

“But those figures should not be taken as the sole reference on how air quality in Jakarta itself has improved. The target is to change the behavior of Jakartans so they reduce their reliance on motor vehicles and start using public transport, cycle or walk short distances.”

Ahmad argued that data from the BPLHD should not be taken at face value.

“In 2005, Jakarta had only 27 days of ‘good air’ in a year. This number increased annually through 2008, when they reported 81 days,” he said, pointing out that the board only had a single working air measurement device left in 2008, which was located in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

In 2005, he said, the board had five working devices, located in Kemayoran, Pondok Indah, Senayan, the West Jakarta mayor’s office and the last at the East Jakarta mayor’s office.

“We suspect that the air quality level has not changed much since 2005. It could even have gotten worse,” Ahmad said.

“They passed a bylaw and a gubernatorial law in 2005, all with the agenda to improve air quality by improving public transport and providing bicycle lanes, smoke-free areas and emissions tests. But nothing worked. Either enforcement of the law went wrong or nobody really tried.”

According to the Jakarta Police records, the number of motorized vehicles in the city has risen to over nine million. By 2014, Jakarta is predicted to have as many as 14 million.