China Readies for "No Car" Day Ahead of Olympics
Date: 24-Sep-07
Country: CHINA
Beijing has been blessed with clear autumnal skies all
week, but will ban cars on some downtown streets while
encouraging all drivers to leave their cars at home
voluntarily.
The Beijing Municipal Maritime Administration said 108
cities across the country would take part in the no-car day
with varying levels of enforcement, encouraging people to get
back on their bicycles for which Chinese cities used to be
famous.
"We are only advocating that small cars keep off the roads
in certain districts," said a Beijing official surnamed Zhang.
Beijing embarked on a four-day experiment last month to see
if taking 1.3 million cars off streets would substantially
reduce pollution.
Beijing is closing down the worst-polluting factories and
switching thousands of homes from coal to gas use but air
quality remains the biggest concern for Olympic organisers.
Beijing's car tally hit the 3 million mark in May and more
than 1,000 more are registered every day, snarling up the roads
and pumping nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate
matter into the air.