"好运北京正从绿色北京开始"
- by a Beijing resident
Is This Beijing?
19 Aug 2007
Foreigners
in Beijing
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.
