In a spot outside the Maidan's Gate No 2, the film called Hard Times was screened for three hours, giving passers-by a chance to hear the argument against having too many cars.

Directed by Pradip Saha, the associate director of communications at CSE, the film is a series of interviews conducted around town, with people from all walks of lives. Operating under the banner of a fictitious TV channel called Hard Times, Saha questions Delhiites about the traffic situation.

“Get used to it,” says a gentleman in a classy Mercedes.

However, many people, even as they drove their own cars, suggested car pools and a newer, improved system of public transport.

“I was invited to do a public art project about urban ecology issues, and since the growth in cars has concerned me and the CSE, I decided to focus on the traffic situation in my film,” says Saha. While some viewers did laugh, or otherwise brush off Saha's film as trivial, it is not hard to see why he and CSE are concerned. In the last five years there has been a 43 per cent increase in vehicles in the city, and only nine per cent in road space, leading to the current infrastructure crunch.