Traffic in China’s capital was lighter on Monday but hazy skies still hovered over the Olympic host city 18 days before the Beijing Games despite factory closures and a ban on more than a million cars.
The city’s last-ditch bid to shift pollution was launched on Sunday and includes the car ban, shutting down 150 polluting factories and ordering building sites to stop work that could cause pollution.
Vehicles with odd- and even-numbered licence plates are banned from Beijing’s roads on alternate days.
”I drove in to town in 30 minutes rather than the usual hour,” said delivery man Yang Kunho (36) who lives west of the town centre.
Others drivers misjudged how long it would take to commute.
”I take the metro but half the office are in cars and they got to work too early,” said Pang Yaqi, an accountant for a downtown office. ”They hadn’t figured out how fast the traffic would be.”
In effect until September 20, the ban will force an additional four million commuters a day to use public transport, according to city officials.
To prepare for that, Beijing has opened three new metro lines and plans an additional 34 new bus routes while introducing staggered working hours at state enterprises. More than 65Â 000 taxis are also in service.
The car ban is part of a wider effort ahead of the August 8 to 24 Games to free-up traffic and clear the air in Beijing, which is one of the world’s most polluted cities and is typically wrapped in a blanket of industrial haze.
To ensure that traffic deadlock will not affect the Games, Olympic traffic lanes running for 286km on key roads have been set aside for athletes and officials.
But pollution appears more difficult to deal with.
Skies above the city of more than 17-million were still hazy on Monday, although the thick smog that has covered the city in recent months had lifted in the days before the car ban began.
Emissions from the city’s 3,3-million vehicles — a number increasing by 1Â 200 new cars a day — remain the chief source of Beijing’s pollution.
International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge warned last year that poor air quality during the Games could result in the suspension of some events, particularly endurance races such as the marathon.
Beijing has already spent $20-billion over the past 10 years in an environmental clean-up, but concern about poor air quality persists.
Experts quoted in state media said they expected to reduce vehicle emissions by more than 60%, eliminating 118Â 000 tonnes of pollutants during the two-month vehicle ban.
Last year, Beijing conducted an experimental ban over fours days which officials said was a success, although it failed to shift the haze over the capital.
”We believe that these additional measures will ensure good air for the Olympics and athletes have nothing to worry about,” said Sun Weide, spokesperson for the Olympic organising committee. – Reuters