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Day one of 'odd-even' traffic sees fewer cars, faster commute


(BEIJING, July 20) -- Road congestion saw apparent relief on Sunday, when the city's "odd-even" traffic restrictions and staggered work hours went into effect, reported Xinhua News Agency. The vast majority of drivers stayed clear of the specially designated Olympic lanes and traffic flowed smoothly. Gridlock seemed like a thing of the past.
With vehicles sporting odd-numbered license plates banned from roads, the normally bumper-to-bumper traffic on the West Third Ring Road at 8 a.m. moved along without a hitch. The speed of traffic moved a lot faster than the usual crawling pace, shortening travel time for many, in some cases by as much as 50 percent.
Similar scenes were replayed elsewhere in the city, whether it was the East Fourth Ring Road or the North Second Ring Road.
For taxi drivers like Yin Chenghai, who used to spend hours in traffic every day, fewer cars on the road was a welcome change. "Half the number of cars as before…I'm in a much better mood today," he said.
The traffic restrictions are expected to do more than minimize the occurrence of clogged roads; they will also help to improve air quality. Beijing has seen 19 blue-sky days so far in July – two more days than the same timeframe produced last year, according to statistics from the Environmental Monitoring Center. The city is just 115 days away from reaching its goal of 256 blue-sky days for the year (or about 70 percent of the total days). Environmental experts predict that exercise of the new traffic restrictions will reduce vehicle emissions by 63 percent.