Beijing restricts car use to fight pollution

FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES • July 21, 2008

BEIJING -- With the Olympics less than three weeks away, Beijing began restricting car use and limiting factory emissions Sunday in a final effort to clear its smog-choked skies.

Under the 2-month plan, half of the capital's 3.3 million cars will be removed from streets on alternate days, depending on whether the license plate ends in an odd or even number.

Poor air quality is a major concern for the Aug. 8-24 games, already causing a few athletes to pull out.

Authorities forecast that the restrictions, along with a major expansion of the subway system that began over the weekend and measures to close polluting factories, would help clear smog over Beijing in time for the games.

Some foreign experts said, however, that air pollution is too intense to clear so easily. In a 4-day test last August, pollution experts noted a slight improvement in air quality.

Beijing residents have gone car-crazy. About 1,200 new vehicles are added each day, slowing transit on the five concentric ring roads to a stop-and-start crawl at peak hours.

The $3.2-billion expansion of the city's subway system lengthened its routes to 125 miles, a 40% expansion. One of the three new lines carries passengers from the airport to a downtown hub in 20 minutes.

The three new lines will carry an additional 850,000 passengers a day, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The car restrictions will require some 4 million additional passenger journeys each day to be made by public bus, subway, bicycle or taxi, burdening the public transit system. Xinhua quoted Zhou Zhengyu, a city transportation official, as saying 2,000 additional public buses would run during the two-month period.

In addition to the traffic plan, chemical plants, power stations and foundries had to cut emissions by 30% beginning Sunday. Dust-spewing construction in the city was to stop entirely.