Shanghai Follows Beijing’s Lead in Traffic Restrictions

17 October 2008

China Daily. Shanghai will adopt a less stringent version of Beijing’s re-instituted traffic restrictions (earlier post) in an effort to reduce congestion, emissions, and petroleum consumption.

Starting next month, vehicles belonging to the government or State-owned enterprises will be banned from the roads on one out of five weekdays in a system based on license plate numbers.

Unlike in Beijing, Shanghai’s curbs will not apply to private cars even though “Shanghai’s private vehicles are encouraged to follow the restrictions,” Xinhua News Agency quoted an official as saying.

When the new traffic restrictions were introduced in Beijing on Monday, up to 800,000 cars were taken off the road.