Clearing the streets...cleaning the air

Many of you have probably heard that Beijing is imposing new driving restrictions this weekend as a way of testing out their plan for cutting air pollution during the 2008 Olympics. In the weeks leading up to today, the day the test begins, I had been searching high and low for some accurate information about just what this meant. Well it looks like a third of the 3 million plus cars that ply through the streets of Beijing will be taken off the read each day by only allowing cars with an odd number on August 17th and 19th to be on the road and cars ending with an even number will be allowed to drive on August 18 and 20th.

Many cities around the world have used this type of policy for air pollution control, with Mexico City being the most notable. It did help to bring Mexico’s air pollution levels down, that is until the policy became institutionalized and drivers wizened up by buying second cars that turned out to more polluting than their first car…d’oh! Let’s hope this policy stays as an emergency measure to ensure those pitfalls aren't repeated here.

My morning walk to work today did not immediately seem any different but as Andrea pointed out, the flow of traffic did seem to increase. Andrea’s more versed in transportation concepts than I am, but it made sense that fewer cars can move faster. So even though it may not immediately look like there was less traffic for the pedestrians, I’m sure the drivers sure felt the difference. We did also notice a lot more bicycles on the road this morning. As for the air quality, that’s harder for me to say. In the days following the official 1 year countdown to the Olympics, we had some amazing air quality. Partly due to the rain that cleaned out a lot of pollution from the sky and lifted the veil of foggy haze that normally hangs over the city blocking out the sun and traps in all that pollution with it. So the air quality this past week has been amazingly great. I was able to see blue skies for several days, much to our chagrin, that meant our morning commute felt even hotter without the haze and smog providing some protection from the sun’s penetrating rays. We of course weren’t sure if this was nature’s present to China or if the government actually succeeded in altering the weather through their cloud seeding plans. Apparently even China’s state run media wasn’t quite sure what the cause was.

We asked some people at work how this was all affecting them. Most of the interns take public transit so they didn’t notice much difference and I didn’t hear from anyone that drives a car so I can’t say how the drivers are dealing with these restrictions. The fact that the test is being done from Friday to Monday will certainly minimize the disruptions to people’s lives, but it will be interesting to see how people deal with the 2 week long implementation of these measures during the Olympics.

I’ll try to take some pictures of the hopefully less crowded streets and cleaner air to post here soon.