Beijing, back in time
August 20, 2007 | Category: China, Environment
Today was the last day of an all-too-brief test run of the 2008 Olympics traffic control system. The system is simple enough: Cars with odd-numbered license plates are allowed to drive on odd-numbered days, even-numbered license plates on even days. The effect (as evidenced below): Enormous.
The first picture was taken at a cross-walk on the main thoroughfare outside my apartment last Thursday, August 16th, a day before the test started, at around 7pm—the downslope of rush-”hour.” The second I took today (Monday), same time, same cross-walk. On most evenings, it’s faster to walk down the street than drive it. Today, one of my neighbors’ abominable pet Pekinese could have sauntered across unharmed, so few were the cars.
[Note: The second picture is slightly darker because the pollution was worse today, which might lead some nay-sayers to call the test a failure. Not so, I say. Cardiac arrest from years of pent up traffic rage must nearly match air pollution as a cause of death here. If every day were as smooth as these last four have been, many many people who found themselves flying for the Western Paradise after fatal fits of automotive apoplexy would still be with us today.]
Not a few people have observed that the test made Beijing into something like what it was 10 or 15 years ago, in the Golden Years, before everyone with a few thousand yuan to spare decided to demonstrate their modernity by bribing their way into a driver’s license and sitting in traffic for hours a day.
One of China’s better bloggers, a fantastic smart-ass named Wang Xiaofeng, did a nice little piece on the test, suggesting the “odd-even” management system be applied to the full spectrum of China’s problems. I translated most of it for China Digital Times yesterday. Here’s a sample:
Citizens with odd-numbered birthdays can only go out on odd days, citizens with even-numbered birthdays can only go out on even days. This way we can “reduce” Beijing’s population almost by half, relieve pressure on public transportation, and thin out the crowds in markets, restaurants, parks and other public areas.
To save energy: Restrict electricity use to odd-numbered floors on odd days, even-numbered floors on even days.
Citizens with odd-numbered birthdays can only go online on odd days, citizens with even-numbered birthdays on even days. This way we can relieve congestion on the Internet.
Citizens with odd-numbered birthdays can only eat pork on odd days, citizens with even-numbered birthdays can only eat pork on even days. Think, would pork prices keep rising?
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About the Author
Josh Chin is a freelance journalist based in Beijing. He also once worked as a sous chef in a French restaurant in San Francisco. Neither job has been good for his health.Photos
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Josh:
The odd/even traffic experiment is fascinating…kinda like Park City odd/even addresses for watering the lawn…you wouldn’t believe the traffic here on Kearns and at Kimball unction…can you imagine the rage if Summit County tried to tel those Hummers who could drive on which days? This would make a perfectcolumn for The Record…especially the bit about polution precluding exercize…nan
I’ve seen the odd Hummer or two on Beijing’s steets, believe it or not. Apropos, there was an item in one of the Chinese papers a few weeks ago that said sales of fuel-efficient cars has actually fallen in the last year–in a country that adds thousands of cars a day–despite considerable government propaganda touting the benefits of saving gas. The reason: Chinese like their cars big. Their model in this attitude: Americans.
A rich story indeed. Will contact you about the column.