Although there are three million registered vehicles on the
road, Beijing is still confident in having blue skies for the
Olympic Games next year. City officials will implement new emission
standards for vehicles and upgrade public transport system, which
they announced at a press conference by The Organizing Committee
for the Beijing Olympic Games (BOCOG) on Thursday.
The three millionth vehicle owner got his car registered last
Saturday in Beijing, ushering a new era in the municipal
development, which is now influenced by cars.
"Gas emissions contribute a lot to air pollution and
restrictions on vehicle emissions will be the city's priority to
improve Beijing's air quality," said Ji Lin, a vice mayor of
Beijing at the conference.
Statistics from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said
one third of the total amount of air pollutants come from vehicle
emissions.
An emission monitoring device placed in an official vehicle
parked near Xi Zhimen intersection, one of Beijing's busiest
junctions, caught three vehicles with higher than average emissions
only within half an hour.
"We will eliminate 2,580 old buses and 5,000 old taxis this year
to better the management of vehicles from the perspective of
environmental protection," the vice mayor continued, adding 300,000
"yellow label vehicles" or public service vehicles, whose emissions
make up half of the total air pollution volume, will be taken off
the roads.
The vice mayor added they will urge petrol stations around the
city to improve their facilities to recycle oil and gas that is
emitted into the air when people fill their cars with petrol. Ji
explained the gas create bromine water, one of the air pollutants.
He did not clearly explain how the recycling would work.
Eighty percent of the three million vehicles in Beijing are
privately owned, with about 1,000 new cars entering the roads
everyday.
"It is the result of the city's booming economy," Ji said. "It
is a common problem for many other big cities home and abroad, and
we need to exchange our experiences in tackling the problem."
According to the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communication,
public transit consists of 30.2 percent of the total traffic flow,
while private car transport is nearly the same at 29.8 percent.
In New York City, public transportation accommodates 76 percent
of the total traffic flow, and 91 percent in Tokyo, 40 percent in
London, and 70 percent in Paris.
But Ji denied any kind of restrictions on the number of private
cars on Beijing's roads. Instead, the government will accelerate
the improvements in the public transportation system to attract
more people onto bus and the subway network.
"What we should do is to mark off exclusive lanes for buses and
lower fares to attract more people onto the buses - to make them
believe they would travel as fast and as comfortable as they would
in private cars," the vice mayor told Chinadaily.com.cn. He added
new subway lines opening later this year would divert more
passengers underground.
Beijing staged a rehearsal to make traffic as smooth as possible
for the Olympics when the Sino-African summit was held last
November. Eighty percent of company- or government-owned cars were
banned from the roads to make way for the summit, creating clearer
streets and clearer skies.
Private cars were not forced to off the roads during the summit.
But some non-official auto clubs and environmental protection
organizations took initiatives to encourage their members and
people not to drive.
"We will draw experience from former Olympic host cities and
learn from our own past practices to stage smooth traffic and blue
skies for the Games," Ji said.
(China Daily June 1, 2007)
