"It's not just people coming into work late, but also you have to think of the many people who have thrown a sickie and just decided not to go in.
"On top of that, who's going to choose today to come shopping in Liverpool?
"We have to promote a more sensible use of cars and have a more environmentally friendly approach to things, but we are going the wrong way about it.
"Gridlock causes more harm than the free flow of traffic and we are causing it consistently at the moment."
The city centre streets are already heavily congested because of the so-called Big Dig and extra congestion on top made the situation worse for businesses, he said.
Steve Pearse, from Liverpool's Chamber of Commerce, said they had tried to make the council rethink the Car Free Day because of the disruption it would cause.
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