On Monday, half of Beijing’s drivers left their vehicles at home and took public transportation in stead on the first workday under new restrictions intended to clear the city’s notoriously polluted air before next month’s Summer Olympic Games.

Fox News reports that, “under a two-month plan that started Sunday, half of the 3.3 million cars will be removed from city streets on alternate days, depending on whether the license plates end in an odd or an even number.”

Those busted for driving on days they shouldn’t, will be fined $14, an expensive penalty even for China’s capital. Hence, drivers with even-numbered plates were forced on Monday to take public transportation, and the government estimated that an extra 4 million commuters would take the bus or subway.

To meet the demand, Beijing was trying to shorten the time between subway trains from three minutes to two. Yet, that triggered some glitches on Monday as officials attempted to use a new signal system, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on its Web site.

Some subway stops were forced to close for a few minutes as trains arrived and the number of passengers waiting on platforms swelled.

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