Beijing to ban all non-green vehicles from city center
As part of Beijing's ongoing efforts to improve its air quality and reduce congestion, the capital of the People's Republic of China will begin placing either green or yellow labels on all vehicles. These labels will correspond with specific areas that vehicles are allowed to enter, and all non-green vehicles will be banned from driving through the city center.
Beginning in June, yellow-labeled cars and trucks won't be allowed to enter areas inside the 5th Ring Road, and in October, that boundary will extend to the 6th Ring Road. The city's environmental and traffic authorities will reportedly monitor these areas to ensure compliance.
There are apparently still issues to be sorted out, though. It seems that there are a number of vehicles that enter the city center to deliver farm goods from outside the city, and authorities are currently figuring out how to deal with these vehicles.
[Source: Gasgoo | Photo: gmetrail]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ChrisW 3:06PM (5/23/2009)
Glad I don't live in China
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jharlan 5:18PM (5/23/2009)
When you are a totalitarian government it's easy.
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JDred 6:09PM (5/23/2009)
One of the resident "Watermelons" that will say this is a great idea in 3.........2........1.......
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Max 7:32PM (5/23/2009)
If you've ever been in China, you'd know that it had to happen, if you can't see 50 feet head of you, something big must be changed.
Several cities in Asia and Europe where stringent anti-pollution measures are implemented. Cars that are too dirty are banned from entering the city-centers.
In China, 9 million people die every year from air, ground and water pollution, just to put things into perspective.
Anarchist "freedom-whiners" 3...2....1....
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JDred 8:18PM (5/23/2009)
Yeah I know, that pesky concept of "Freedom" we have in the United States really cramps you control freaks up! The fact that you would even agree with repression like this is why people tune you out!
~D. 9:09PM (5/23/2009)
yes, the Chinese are choking to death on their "freedom".
The fact is that older urban infrastructure was designed & engineered around 19th Century levels of industrialization and 20th Century automotive technology and 21st Century population levels are pushing that design to the breaking point. Abstract concepts like "freedom" and ideas of entitlement to certain types of technologies don't mean anything to the inanimate; your tailpipe doesn't give a crap about you or what you think the world owes you.
If you are indeed a special little snowflake, then you are melting to death because you CHOSE to live in hell...but then again free will is a bitch from what I'm told.
Chris M 7:12PM (5/23/2009)
Well, I'd predicted that the Communist government wouldn't do anything about pollution until it started affecting the elite rulers, looks like that finally happened. But typical of dictatorships, it went from doing nothing to repressively doing too much.
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mike 7:18PM (5/23/2009)
I guess I'll be the 'watermelon' for the day.
It's a good idea.
I'll go a step further.
It would be a good idea to ban vehicles altogether from large parts of major urban centers during the day.
Truck deliveries, etc should be made at night or very early morning.
I would explain why but many of you already know and the rest don't care what they are.
- mike
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mike 7:19PM (5/23/2009)
Well, that was a little unclear.
The rest don't care what 'the reasons' are, I should have said.
- still Mike
Max 11:14PM (5/23/2009)
JDred
I'm not a "control freak" and do not support "repressive" acts. Just to make it clear for you freedom-whining FoxNews watcher, China's anti-pollution has nothing to do with repression. It's a measure to counter pollution, which adversely affects people, health, business, tourism etc..
Killing people in Tian an men = repression
Implementing an anti-pollution measure to the benefit of all = a good idea
Get that numbnuts?
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Nick 11:00PM (5/23/2009)
JDred just reached the pinnacle of retardation, now everything the government goes gets the knee-jerk reaction and a good dose of freedom whining.
You seriously need to let go of McCarthyism, humans, for as long as they walked earth, have formed governments to govern them, as individuals are unable to think as a community.
Or are you going to bitch about having to send your kids to school? Yeah let's call that the 'freedom to not educate your kids' you f-ing imbecile.
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Don 11:18PM (5/23/2009)
Maybe jdred shoudl take a trip to Somalia, where he will get a taste of his beloved anarchy up the A....if you know what I mean.
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imercury 12:13AM (5/24/2009)
China still to date has produced far less of the worlds air polution then unfree USA . Chinese use electric bicycles by the millions -US Americans are afraid to try them. China is at the crossroads of the future; USA is at the cross roads of the past. They will change our future we will watch and criticize. RIDE AN ELECTRIC BICYCLE BUILT IN CHINA except that it is not what you think it is; and you will appreciate it .
Communism makes the best capitalism. "Think Outside the Car"
John Breza
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Don 1:14AM (5/24/2009)
Sadly, too many Americans (such as JDredd ..ohh its Judge Dredd, lol) think that anarchy, lawlessness, unregulated businesses, trade and abstinence are going to make America competitive.
What a bunch of fools...that's what fast-food, TV education, Christian right brainwashing does:It ruins a nation.
No, being competitive means rolling up our sleeves, modernizing our crumbling infrastructure, boosting education, explore green-tech, and move forward big time. Religious freaks, NIMBYism and the right wing special interests (mostly in weapons manufacturing, oil and gas industries) has thrown our advance off track.
JDred 7:12AM (5/24/2009)
Thanks guys for proving my point! You're nothing but control freaks that use the issues like "Global Warming" and "Pollution" as justification to impose your will on how people live their lives. In fact, one could substitute those phrases with the word "Jews" and you guys sound remakably like Hitler himself.
Unlike you people, I have the respect in my fellow human beings as capable of making their own informed decisions in regards to a particular issue and leave it as that. If we disagree, so be it. But it seems that after seeing your juvenile name calling and labeling responses, you look at others who hold different views with complete contempt. Not a good way to get others to agree with your cause, don't you think?
If you must know, yes I have conservative views on many issues and hold my freedoms as an American paramount. I won't use the enviroment as a justification to impose my will or beliefs. Rather, work to solve the enviromental issues with respect to others people's freedoms, not vice-versa.
Get it?
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~D. 9:11AM (5/24/2009)
wow, the Hitler reference? how long did that take?
Please spare us all the hypocritical "I respect other peoples' views and you guys are all a bunch of name callers" bull. You lead with the phrase "you control freaks", (it's in print...so we CAN see it you know.) And worst of all, you directed it towards us your American countrymen instead of the government of the country in question, so it just proves what the right really means: taking a massive dump on anyone else who doesn't EXACTLY adhere to their entire worldview.
Getting back to the topic at hand...the whole idea is that YOU the individual are free, but your car is not. Your freedom to extend your hand ends where someone else's face begins. That is a cornerstone of American political and social philosophy, and poignantly enough what is at the core of this pollution issue. YOU are free, but you are not free to drive a monster truck through the street where MY children are playing. It saddens me that there is a faction of my countrymen who fail to appreciate this themselves while decrying it in others. Grow up.
JDred 7:07PM (5/24/2009)
"taking a massive dump on anyone else who doesn't EXACTLY adhere to their entire worldview."
Pot, meet Kettle.
"YOU are free, but you are not free to drive a monster truck through the street where MY children are playing"
Got any more straw men you want to throw out there?
SteveCT 10:46AM (5/25/2009)
How is that a straw man argument? You're saying that the Chinese anti-pollution measure is repressive because it restricts the people's freedom. Given that the measure is a restriction on where certain cars can be driven, the monster-truck-in-the-neighborhood argument is a reference to your apparent belief in a right, not codified in the Constitution or any law, to drive anywhere you wish in any vehicle you wish. You apparently also extend this right to the Chinese and even presume to declare that they ought to value this right more than efforts to reduce pollution.
You know, freedom isn't given the same kind of status as a basic human value in other places in the world; that's kind of an American thing. In Japan, children are punished not by being grounded but by being forced out of the house (and they stay at the door and demand to be let back in). Not everyone shares your mindset, and it's arrogant to try to tell people how to think. I personally think this measure would be too much in the U.S., but given the enormity of China's pollution problem, perhaps it makes sense for them. Even if you disagree with the measure, it doesn't even make the list of repressive acts by the Chinese government.
JDred 4:26PM (5/25/2009)
Steve, the Straw Man was D's characterization of driving a "Monster Truck". Taking the most ridiculous example and applying it as a factual example. The only guys I know that have anything remotely close are my friends and associates that operate businesses that require them to haul implements and tools to their job sites. But in the end, since I don't agree with such radical ideals I must be some Christian, Conservative, hoe schooled, whatever prejudiced characterization that you disagree with.
I consider myself a Conservationist, I will use resources, but not waste them.
You are correct that our concept of personal freedoms is unique. The bottom line is that there are those in the green movement who see this as a perfectly acceptable solution that should be applied here. That is what I find very disturbing.
Sebastian 11:36AM (5/24/2009)
Troll-bashing aside, it did surprise me that the Chinese were taking this technology so seriously and so fast. Although I think it will be a city phenomenon for the next few years, what scares me is what happens when they convert their military vehicles to hybrid and fuel cell.
One of the things I really like about alternative energy is the ability to radically change the concept of supply line. If you can increase the range of an Abrams tank and their supporting vehicles by 100% through hybrid technology, then what you can do in battle changes completely.
I do believe people in this world want to hurt us. But I'm not as loony-tunes rabid about it. I leave that to the Cheney-ites. I have them test my food every day. They're crazy, but I haven't been poisoned yet.
Seriously though, I'd like to see us do it before the Chinese. But since we're saddled with "drill baby drill" types, the will to commit ourselves to converting the technology will drag the process out.
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