Beijing considers car ban on alternate days

BEIJING — The Chinese capital of Beijing is considering permanently banning vehicles from the roads on alternate days based on their number plates, as part of smog-control measures following a recently successful test drive, Chinese media reports said.

Earlier this month, the municipal government conducted a 10-day ban that restricted about half of private vehicles from the roads in a bid to ensure clear blue skies during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit it hosted.

The ban ordered cars off the roads using a system that determined if the last digit of their number plates was odd or even, helping to bring down the country’s choking traffic pollution, the South China Morning Post reported.

Beijing Executive Vice-Mayor Li Shixiang said the government will be holding panels to discuss a permanent ban after receiving positive public feedback, including suggestions that the ban be imposed on weekends, the People’s Daily reported. “The public has voiced various positive feedback on the prohibition of vehicles from the roads on alternate days, proposing it to become a norm, including on weekends,” he was quoted as saying.

To ensure clean air during the APEC summit attended by world leaders such as United States President Barack Obama, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, China imposed measures to thin traffic and close hundreds of factories within a 200km radius of the capital from Nov 1 to 12.

Government efforts to control the smog gained so much attention that the clearer skies got a nickname, “APEC blue”.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection reported that Beijing’s air quality was at “excellent” or “good” based on an air-quality index reading for all but two of the first 12 days of this month, in sharp contrast to smog-ridden October.

However, the weather has sharply worsened after the ban was lifted following the summit. A yellow air pollution alert was issued by environmental authorities on Tuesday, an indication that the city had seen heavy to severe pollution between one and three days.

At 5pm on Wednesday, its air quality index reading stood at 292 — the second most serious on the six-level scale.

Levels of PM2.5, the small particles that pose the greatest threat to human health, averaged 89.5 micrograms per cubic meter in Beijing last year. The World Health Organization recommends average annual exposure to no more than 10 micrograms per cubic meter.

The city has sought to limit car purchases to control traffic congestion, which ranked worst in the world along with Mexico City, showed a 2010 International Business Machines Corp study.

China previously imposed smog-control measures before the 2008 Olympics, when some construction was stopped and factories shut down.

China is the world’s largest auto market and last year was the first country to see domestic sales of more than 20 million vehicles.

Regulators have also imposed limits on new vehicle registrations to control the smog. This year, Beijing has slashed its registration cap to 150,000 vehicles, down from the previous 240,000, while five other cities also have limits, including Hangzhou and Tianjin. Agencies