A year before the start of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the Chinese organizers are worried that air pollution might seriously hinder the athletes' performances. By then, most polluting factories will have been relocated far away from the Olympic Green, all construction sites shut down and migrant laborers sent back home. But what about Beijing's ever increasing car population, growing at the rate of 1,000 a day?
The city government decided to try to find out. On August 17 and 19 only cars with odd-numbered license plates would be allowed on the roads; on August 18 and 20 their even-numbered brothers and sisters would take over.
A random check yesterday on a trip from home to my favorite restaurant Morel's showed that Beijing's drivers are overwhelmingly adhering to the ban, some no doubt disgruntingly, but they nevertheless kept there cars off the roads. Traffic went much more smoothly. But the smoggy sky didn't disappear. (The Times: “Traffic ban fails to beat city smog”)
Of course, four days is too short to have a big impact. Perhaps if the experiment would be extended for three months, the sky might turn blue again, but that would disrupt the normal life of the city too much.
Perhaps it would have been better to build the Olympic Green on the steppes of Inner Mongolia?
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