China´s capital city strives to clear skies

The government, after Olympic regulations showed promise, came up with another six-month rule to cut release of climate-changing pollution, especially carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. It adopted a regulation with relatively fewer restrictions. In post-Olympics car restrictions, from October 11,2008 to April 10, 2009, cars with number plates ending one or six were off the roads on Mondays, while those ending with two or seven on Tuesdays, three or eight on Wednesdays, four or nine Thursdays and five or zero Fridays. Weekends were free of the ban. The ban was effective from 6 am to 9 pm each day, excluding weekends.

The ban also applied to government vehicles as 70 percent of them would take turns to run on roads on weekdays. However, it did not apply to police vehicles, ambulances, fire engines, buses, taxis and other public service vehicles.

While the environmental protection regulation generated remarkable results-- removing more than a million vehicles from the streets each day--people were confused about the one-month rotation of the rules. In other words, a car owner who was off the roads on Mondays in the previous month had to drive on Mondays in the current month and the process rotated the same way throughout the six-month rule.

The current rules, which took effect from April 10, 2009 and last a year, are designed to address confusion of people. Now a person can stick to his same off-day schedule for 13 weeks in a row than the four-week regulation previously while the number-based regulation will remain the same; cars with license plates ending with zero or five will be banned from the roads on Monday, plates ending with one or six on Tuesday, two or seven on Wednesday and so on.