Erasing Traffic - No! You Can't Drive Your Car
The local government in Beijing is hell-bent on making sure that all problems that might give visitors bad impressions of China are erased for the duration of the Olympic Games. There have been rumours about all downtown construction being banned, no smoking in the downtown area, no personal cars in the central downtown districts and all of the factories being shutdown. In addition, the government is scheduling "practice" drills for various behavioral and structural changes to the Chinese people (yes, to the people).
Right now, we're in the middle of a four-day experiment to figure out how to reduce congestion on the streets of Beijing. From last Friday through Monday, the government decided that you're only allowed to drive your car on the odd days if your license plate ends in an odd number (likewise, even days if your license plate ends in an even number). They're doing it now to figure out if it really has an effect and to make sure the population has some practice.
From my perspective, it's been a huge success. The traffic has been a dream over these four days. Very few backups (relatively), fast moving vehicles and much less anxiety. *I love it.* Of course, not owning a car, I only stand to gain the benefits and none of the problems.
Initially, I thought that this would be impossible to enforce but the local government has done an admirable job (along with the cooperation of the population -- not always a given). They were actually handing out tickets and had police stationed at all the off-ramps in the downtown highways (trust me, there are a lot of off-ramps). I didn't see many violators (okay... I didn't see any violators) .
Municipal governments often have crazy ideas but I'll give this to the Beijing administration. Here's hoping they make it permanent. Of course, during the African Summit a few months ago, there was another practice session that was even more successful. They banned all personal government-issued vehicles for the duration of the summit. By one measure, one-third of all the cars in Beijing are government vehicles. Now that's crazy!
Right now, we're in the middle of a four-day experiment to figure out how to reduce congestion on the streets of Beijing. From last Friday through Monday, the government decided that you're only allowed to drive your car on the odd days if your license plate ends in an odd number (likewise, even days if your license plate ends in an even number). They're doing it now to figure out if it really has an effect and to make sure the population has some practice.
From my perspective, it's been a huge success. The traffic has been a dream over these four days. Very few backups (relatively), fast moving vehicles and much less anxiety. *I love it.* Of course, not owning a car, I only stand to gain the benefits and none of the problems.
Initially, I thought that this would be impossible to enforce but the local government has done an admirable job (along with the cooperation of the population -- not always a given). They were actually handing out tickets and had police stationed at all the off-ramps in the downtown highways (trust me, there are a lot of off-ramps). I didn't see many violators (okay... I didn't see any violators) .
Municipal governments often have crazy ideas but I'll give this to the Beijing administration. Here's hoping they make it permanent. Of course, during the African Summit a few months ago, there was another practice session that was even more successful. They banned all personal government-issued vehicles for the duration of the summit. By one measure, one-third of all the cars in Beijing are government vehicles. Now that's crazy!
Labels: Olympics
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