"好运北京正从绿色北京开始"
- by a Beijing resident
Is This Beijing?
19 Aug 2007
Beijing’s traffic
jam is known to be phenomenal, but look at
the picture below taken on Friday, the first
day of a dry run for next year's Olympics, by a Beijing
commuter on Chang’an Avenue in the central
district of the capital. Where is the
traffic then?
The author of the
photo 塑料螺旋 wrote: “今天一大早八点多，俺刚骑上长安街，着实吓了一跳。往日的车水马龙不见，车辆明显减少，道路畅通。(Early in the morning
at eight clock, I biked downtown along
Chang’an Avenue and received a big
shock. Gone was the heavy traffic flow.
With less cars on the road than normal
days, I experienced an unexpectedly easy
commute.)”
When it comes to the
Olympics, the local communities and the
government are united on a common ground.
Days before the dry run began, over five
hundred private car clubs and other
non-governmental organisations and lobby
groups went to the key intersections
distributing leaflets, calling on their
fellow citizens to demonstrate their support
for the Olympic Games by joining the Green
Outing movement.
“Increase you
support for the Olympics by reducing your car
usage” becomes a catch phrase in Beijing
nowadays, according to a television presenter
on the Beijing TV station. Ninety nine
percent of her audience are backing-up the
policy which uses an odd-even license plate
number system for an alternative use of cars
on the road, she said.
Some local businesses
went out of their way to make their
contribution to the Green Outing move. An
insurance company has initiated a system,
which would reward an IC card for 300 free
bus trips to their customers who have signed
an agreement on observing one non-driving day
each month. In just ten days, around five
thousand car owners have responded.
Currently Beijing has
more than 3 million motor vehicles. The
estimated vehicle number by the time of the
Olympics next year is to increase to 3.3
million, according to the Chinese
authorities.
