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Beijing extends car limits for one year

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-05 20:35

Beijing will extend its post-Olympic vehicle restrictions for another year in an effort to ease traffic congestion and reduce air pollution, the city's traffic officials said Sunday.

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The extension was widely expected as a majority of residents in the Chinese capital supported fewer cars on the road and cleaner air.

The restrictions, based on license plate numbers, take 20 percent of the city's 3.61 million vehicles off roads each weekday.

"It will be carried out from April 11 to April 10, 2010," said Wang Zhaorong, spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications at a press conference.

Small changes have been made to post-Olympic vehicle restrictions, which began October 11, 2008 and expire April 10.

For private cars, the new ban is effective from 7 am to 8 pm, compared to the current 6 am to 9 pm. The restrictions remain in effect round the clock for government and corporate vehicles.

Residents will be allowed to drive on the Fifth Ring Road throughout the week.

Also, owners will have the same "off-day" for 13 weeks in a row as opposed to the current four weeks. The new rotation was designed to reduce confusion.

There continues to be no restrictions on weekends and public holidays and for emergency vehicles, taxies, mass transit vehicles and other public service vehicles.

During the Olympics and Paralympics last summer, Beijing imposed a traffic ban based on an odd-even license plate system. The initiative took 45 percent of the cars off the roads and helped clear the skies, but as soon as the ban was lifted in September, traffic jams resumed.

Figures released by the Beijing Transportation Research Center (BTRC) last week showed that traffic jams were reduced by five hours and 15 minutes a day during the six months since the post-Olympics restrictions have been in effect. Vehicular emissions were reduced by 375 tonnes, or 10 percent, every day.

BTRC statistics showed about 90 percent of city residents said they supported the restrictions and 89 percent said they were willing to see the rules extended.