Traffic ran relatively smoothly in Beijing yesterday, the first day in which the vehicular ban took a fifth of the capital's 3.5 million cars off its roads, the local transportation authority said.

Fewer streets were congested within the Fifth Ring Road, as the ban applied to private automobiles with license plate numbers ending in 1 or 6.

However, there was little apparent impact on notoriously clogged main streets downtown, such as the Second and Third Ring roads.