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.