NYT: Smoggy Beijing Plans to Cut Traffic by Half for Olympics, Paper Says

January 24, 2008

By JIM YARDLEY

BEIJING — Faced with persistent air pollution despite promises to stage a green Olympics, Beijing is planning to reduce its motor traffic by half during the Games to improve air quality and ease traffic flow, according to a newspaper report on Wednesday.

The article, in The Beijing News, said the number of vehicles in the city was expected to reach 3.3 million by August, meaning that roughly 1.65 million cars and trucks would be pulled off roads each day. The city will dedicate lanes to Olympic traffic and increase public transportation with new shuttle buses to accommodate visitors and local residents, the article said.

Beijing officials have not announced Olympic contingency measures, but the newspaper said the traffic plan had been completed.

The city’s air pollution — ranked by some studies as among the worst in the world — is one of the most pressing challenges facing Olympic organizers, with fewer than 200 days until the opening ceremony on Aug. 8. Many Olympic teams plan to train outside the city to protect athletes. Besides whatever measures Beijing officials take to reduce pollution, factories throughout north China may face shutdowns during the Games.

“The task of controlling pollution and traffic congestion is arduous,” Guo Jinlong, the acting mayor of Beijing, said Sunday, the state media reported.

Traffic restrictions have been anticipated for the Olympics since last August, when Beijing conducted a four-day experiment that limited motorists to driving on alternate days, depending on whether the last number on their license plate was odd or even. That test eliminated more than one million vehicles each day, easing traffic but having a less substantial effect on air pollution. The Beijing News did not specify whether the odd-even system would be used for the Games.

For the past decade, Beijing has taken cleanup measures and officials have reported steady progress in reducing pollutants through the city’s “Blue Sky” air quality monitoring program. But a new report from an American environmental consultant has cast doubt on the validity of the program’s measurements and suggested that despite official reassurances, air quality has not improved in the past nine years.

Researchers at Peking University have blamed airborne particulate matter for contributing to roughly 25,000 premature deaths in Beijing in 2002.

Meanwhile, Olympic officials are facing another controversy after The Sunday Times of London reported that at least 10 workers had been killed in accidents during construction of the National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest because of its ornate, latticed steel frame.

On Monday, a spokesman for Beijing’s Olympic organizing committee said the report was false. On Tuesday, the top work safety inspector for China, Li Yizhong, said he could not confirm the account in the newspaper. But Mr. Li, director of the State Administration of Work Safety, suggested that his agency might be willing to investigate.

“I do not know whether there have been any cover-ups,” he said, The Associated Press reported. “So we welcome the public to report any violations to authorities.”