Today is the last day of the car ban. While on the road these past few days, I have made the observation that most people followed the rule - at least from what I could see. I think I only saw 1 or 2 “offenders” - those driving when they weren’t supposed to - i.e. if it was an even day but their license plate ended in an odd number.
Continuing with my daily “pollution check”, I bring you this morning’s photo, again, from my apartment. It looks worse than yesterday. I’m at the office right now and it doesn’t look much better.
On the drive to work today, the roads (specifically the 4th ring road, one of the “limited” access “freeways” we have here circling the city) was quite fluid - certainly a welcomed sight.
So, until we hear any “official” statistics from the “air quality stations” that the authorities spread around the city for these 4 days - I’m going to guess that the car ban helped with traffic congestion (I said “helped” not “improved beyond belief”), but not with the pollution - at least noticable.
The air still looks gross. My eyes still get sore from time to time. Granted, I haven’t been known to cough due to the air in Beijing, some people I know who do have said they haven’t noticed much difference.
I think my 2nd suggestion from this post will really bring quantifiable improvements- not to mention an additional source of revenue to the traffic bureau!
Update: I took a photo from my office in the afternoon. No real improvement over the morning…
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August 20th, 2007 at 11:03 am
I think the reason the the day 3 picture looked better is because you took it in the afternoon while you took all other other pictures in the morning.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Looking out the window now, (11am), it isn’t much better
August 20th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
“I think I only saw 1 or 2 “offenders” - those driving when they weren’t supposed to - i.e. if it was an even day but their license plate ended in an odd number.”
I hope you’re not serious about that- don’t you think that’s totally unacceptable that some people just figure they’re somehow ‘above the law’ or something?
August 20th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Tom - good point. And of course I do. But then again, it is entirely possible not everyone was thoroughly informed of the new rule / and all specific requirements. OR, there may be certain situations where it makes sense to drive your car, no matter what. An example could be your wife is giving birth, or even dying - so you want to get her to the hospital but don’t want to wait for the ambulance (who knows how long it will take for an ambulance to respond!)
So I supposed we can’t pass judgment as we don’t know all the facts related to everyone.
As a driver myself, I don’t entirely understand the rules - as I have only seen small excerpts from poorly translated (Chinese to English) news stories concerning this “test”.
August 20th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Cool.