MINOR changes to the approach to Royal Ascot and car park entrances made sure that every road-going racegoer arrived before 1pm.

Traffic bosses said the A64 and Tadcaster Road was "like a ghost town" 90 minutes before the first race began at 2.30pm yesterday, with hardly any vehicles on the roads.

They said this was because many travellers had listened to warnings to arrive earlier, combined with better signage on the A64 and improvements to car park A, at the junction of Knavesmire Road and Tadcaster Road.

At one point up to 200 vehicles were getting into the parking areas every minute according to a council spokeswoman.

Earlier in the morning there were queues of up to seven miles on the A64 approach, back as far as The Buckles Inn, but traffic speeds didn't drop below 10mph.

A City of York Council spokeswoman said: "If you come to a big event like Royal Ascot with this volume of people then you expect to get some delays. But to keep everyone moving has been a real achievement and we are very pleased.

"The city centre is a little bit busier than normal, perhaps with people who stayed overnight in town and are then going towards the racecourse, which is something we didn't have on the first day."

Meanwhile, residents in South Bank have hailed measures to stop Ascot racegoers parking and driving through local streets.

Some suggested that steps such as barriers to stop non-residents driving through the area should be taken again during busy future York race meetings.

Margaret Knowles said: "It's quieter than I had ever known it on a race day." Her son, David, said the policies had been a success in keeping traffic out of the city centre.

Belinda Lumb said: I thought it would be really busy last night, but it was really quiet."

Karen MacDonald said: "Traffic has been really quiet around here."

However, some residents of Bishopthorpe Road said they believed the ban on parking in that street during race hours had been slightly over the top, saying that traffic had been so light that the ban was unnecessary.

"It has been a bit of an imposition," said one resident.

Updated: 10:18 Thursday, June 16, 2005