Beijing Re-institutes Traffic Restrictions to Combat Pollution and Congestion

12 October 2008

Xinhua. Beijing has re-instituted traffic restrictions to helped maintain the reductions in emissions and traffic congestion achieved for the Olympics but which were being lost after the earlier restrictions expired following the Games.

Under the new traffic restriction, 70 percent of government vehicles, as well as all corporate and private cars, will take turns off the roads one out of the five weekdays as of 11 Oct., according to the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications.

Cars whose number plates end with 1 or 6 will be taken off roads on Monday, while those ending with 2 or 7 will be banned on Tuesday, 3 or 8 on Wednesday, 4 or 9 on Thursday and 5 or 0 on Friday. The ban does not apply on weekends. The ban will be applicable within the Fifth Ring Road inclusive, from 6 am to 9 pm for private cars and round the clock for government and corporate vehicles.

The restrictions will be implemented as a trial for six months, but does not apply to emergency, transit or other public service vehicles.

The new traffic restriction will keep about 800,000 cars from the road everyday, according to the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications. The latest government statistics show that Beijing has about 3.5 million vehicles. In addition, about 1,200 new vehicles take on the road everyday.

During the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Beijing imposed a two-month ban on vehicles on alternate days, which took nearly 2 million cars off the roads.