Let's keep car ban in place, say citizens
23/8/2007 9:45
After a four-day trial in which more than one million cars were banned from
Beijing's roads, many people in the capital are calling for the ban to become
permanent.
"I would leave my car in the garage forever if the traffic was
as smooth as it was during those four days," said He Bin, a lawyer living on the
outskirts of Beijing.
"It usually takes an hour and 20 minutes to drive
to my office but the bus trip saved me half an hour. I listened to music and
read newspapers on the bus," he said.
Most Internet users hailed the
temporary ban as a success. "The ban has taken Beijing back to the 1980s when
there were no traffic jams. I hope the ban will never be lifted," wrote one
netizen, registered as "Burubujian" on an online forum of Sina.com.
About
1.3 million cars were removed from the city roads on August 17-20 to test the
effect on air quality for the Olympic Games.
Drivers with even-numbered
license plates, excluding taxis, buses and emergency vehicles, were told to stay
off the roads on Friday and Sunday or face fines. Odd-numbered cars were banned
on Saturday and Monday.
The air quality was "fairly good" during the
four-day trial, with the air pollution index standing between 93 and 95, down
from 116 last Thursday.
"Everyone dreams of owning a car in China but the
trial ban made many people, including me, realize that a country on wheels may
not be our dreamland," said lawyer He.
"When I was trapped at a busy
junction on Tuesday morning I wished the ban was still in force," he
said.
However, very few people have voluntarily stopped driving their
cars even though the media has promoted this for years and the idea of a "no-car
day" was introduced last year.
"Most car owners still drive cars if they
are not ordered to take public transport. If I decided to take the bus, I would
still be caught in jams because the private cars are still there," said Li
Shaochun, a software engineer.
An editorial in the Beijing News said the
temporary traffic ban could solve Beijing's traffic woes during a specific time
period but there remained a conflict of interests if the ban was
permanent.
The editorial argued that car owners already paid several
kinds of taxes to drive their cars so if their right to drive was sacrificed for
Beijing's blue sky, they deserved compensation.
Xie Shaodong, deputy head
of the Environmental Sciences and Engineering College of Peking University, said
Beijing could not cure its pollution troubles simply by restricting
cars.
"In the long run, building a fast and accessible transportation
network will be a more effective way to improving Beijing's air quality," Xie
said.
Xinhua
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