AS reporter Guy Whitmore discovered yesterday, it isn't easy to travel by car through Worcester in the rush hour.

The county council's Travelwise Week, which started yesterday, was being launched with a race between a bus, a group of cyclists and a car - driven by our reporter - to show which method of transport was the quickest way to commute through the city.

Clearly, it wasn't by car. In a situation that thousands of commuters who are stuck in fume-belching traffic every day will recognise, the vehicle failed to reach the starting line at Worcester North park-and-ride at 8.30am after becoming stuck in heavy traffic at The Tything.

Travelwise Week hopes to encourage drivers out of their cars by promoting a different theme every day that could reduce traffic and pollution levels.

The week will include day-long campaigns promoting alternative fuels, car-sharing, working from home, public transport, walking and cycling.

Similar initiatives in recent years have consistently made the point that leaving the car at home is the environmentally-friendly thing to do.

But are we listening? It seems that the volume of traffic battling its way through the city is increasing day-by-day.

And that will strike many as strange because the lesson of yesterday's experiment is that - with the expense of petrol, wear and tear on the car and parking costs - driving is not only the slowest but also the most expensive way of travelling in Worcester.