China's No Car Day Runs Out of Gas
Last week, we reported on the positive step China
was taking for a 'No Car Day', where citizens were encouraged to
leave their cars at home, and use public transportation.
Unfortunately,
the majority of citizens ignored the largely publicized event,
and drove their cars anyway. The "No Car Day" called
by Chinese authorities made little impact Saturday on the streets
of more than 100 cities in the country. The roads were teeming
with private cars across the country including in capital Beijing.
The campaign sought to encourage at least half of China's urban
residents to take public transportation. State officials and employees
in certain cities were asked not to drive their vehicles, while
some cities banned government-owned cars from plying the cities'
streets.
The event was
held amid high hopes and to avoid the threat of having some of
next year's Olympic events postponed. In a massive public relations
effort, China is starting to measures to try to reduce pollution
in
Beijing.
A host of factories have been shut down, while many others have
been moved out of town, but non-stop construction and booming car
sales have made air quality even worse.
Some officials
are worried about the pollution affecting athletes in competition.
Sports with short durations would not be a problem, but endurance
sports
like cycling are examples of
competitions that
might be postponed or delayed on bad smog days.
Billions have been spent in an attempt to reduce pollution without
success.