Beijing restricts cars to help clear city air for Olympics
Updated 1h 53m ago
Beijing is restricting cars on roads and curbs in an effort to keep pollution at a minimum for the Olympic games. Beijing has set aside special lanes for the Olympics and also will keep vehicles off the roads on alternate days to ease congesion and boost air quality.
BEIJING (AP) ?- Beijing's bold plan to restrict car use to clear its notoriously polluted skies in time for the Olympics kicked into high gear Monday as the work week began.
Normally snarled traffic flowed smoothly in most areas, although skies were hazy, a sign that it could be several days before the impact of the measures ?- which also include constructions cutbacks and factory closures ?- is noticeable.
Under the two-month operation that started Sunday, half of the capital's 3.3 million cars will be removed from city streets on alternate days depending on whether their license plates end in an odd or even number.
Sun Weide, spokesman for Beijing's Olympic organizing committee, said the plan should reduce vehicle emissions ?- a major cause of the city's stifling pollution ?- by about 63%.
Changes in air quality will be monitored by experts from the city's environment protection bureau, which has 27 survey stations around Beijing and another 18 in Olympic venues, according to the state-run Beijing Times newspaper.
