Some women waved flares and pounded on cars, ordering drivers to honk their horns and cheer.
A judge, still wearing his robes, wandered through traffic, ordering drivers to put on their seat belts.
They had argued that they were unwilling to order drivers to make shipments because of fear for their safety.
The second threat, the officers said, comes from criminals, some of whom masquerade as police officers and order drivers to pull over.
The city itself even got into the spirit, ordering drivers to avoid honking, which might disturb students, and, in some places, closing down Internet cafes in the days before, to encourage studying.
But though there were signs that small numbers of oil trucks were carrying fuel from depots late tonight and though there has been no violence, many companies seemed reluctant to order drivers to cross the protesters' informal picket lines.
The police sometimes draw their guns and order drivers in vehicles similar to the two that witnesses have described to come out with their hands up and prove they are not the sniper, an official said today.
There were no major traffic tie-ups on the local roads, only minor delays, as State Police troopers ordered drivers to pull over briefly while Mr. Cheney's motorcade rolled by.
In our imagination, this unit is for ever stuck in 1975, thanks to The Sweeney, the TV series in which hard-nosed, hard-drinking detectives in sheepskin coats ordered drivers to "step on it", and where women..
Signs at the entrances to its many tunnels order drivers to turn off their engines if they are caught in a long delay, but not everybody does, and exhaust gases make breathing difficult: roll up your windows.
