Beijing to continue limiting traffic in wake of Olympics
During and before this summer's Olympic games, a significant amount of attention was given to the air quality that the world's top athletes would be breathing in Beijing. As was widely reported, the city's air was highly contaminated due to an abundance of people, manufacturing plants and automobiles. As you are likely aware, the city limited the number of cars that could be on its roads before and during the games and is set to continue the practice now that attention has turned away. The largest improvement is expected to come from limiting the number of new car sales in the city. Only 100,000 new license plates will be granted annually, which will have the undesirable effect of running half the city's auto dealerships out of business. To help counter the expected problem, mass transit and bus routes will be upgraded.
As another measure, the city will take 30-percent of cars owned by its own government off the road as well, sealing them up "for safekeeping." What's more, the city vehicles that are left will be banned from the roads one out of every five days. Emergency and police vehicles won't be included in that ban. These measures should help the city keep the clean air it fostered while the world was watching.
[Source: Gasgoo]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
philmcneal 10:04PM (9/30/2008)
wow what a burn to those dedicated their lives at the dealership
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GoodCheer 9:29AM (10/01/2008)
Reducing the number of cars available does not really address the problem. They have to address the number of people that need to get into the city center each day to go to work. If you make owning and operating (and driving to the city center in) a car more expensive and less convenient than taking public transportation, then the problem will solve itself.
If you invest in public transportation infrastructure and do not mandate or subsidize public parking facilities, the problem will take care of itself.
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Brn 10:01AM (10/01/2008)
I love the picture. What a nightmare.
GoodCheer, Rather than making a car less convenient, how about making public transit more convenient. I know it's the same thing, but it has a different attitude. I'd rather attract people to the destination than push them away from the source.
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