Car ban as Beijing stays on red alert
Print Edition
HALF of Beijing’s private cars were ordered off the streets yesterday and many construction sites and schools closed after authorities in China’s smog-shrouded capital maintained its pollution red alert for a second day.
A grey haze hung over the city of around 21.5 million people, with levels of PM2.5 — the tiny particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs — at times above 300 micrograms per cubic meter as of last night.
Yesterday morning, the average density of PM2.5 exceeded 234 micrograms in downtown areas. The World Health Organization’s recommended maximum exposure is 25.
Beijing also closed several highway sections to reduce traffic.
Its clampdown on traffic, based on odd or even license plate numbers, took at least 2 million private cars off the road. In addition, 30 percent of government cars are subject to travel bans.
Most of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the burning of coal for electricity and heating — particularly bad when demand peaks in winter — and is also the main cause of smog, which can include multiple pollutants.
Monday was the first time authorities in the capital had declared a red alert since emergency air pollution plans were introduced two years ago, although levels were far from the city’s worst.
Last week, it was enveloped in a toxic soup, severely cutting visibility and sending PM2.5 levels as high as 634 micrograms per cubic meter.
Under the alert — the highest in a four-tiered, color-coded warning system — an odd-even number plate system is designed to keep half the city’s roughly 4.4 million private vehicles from the streets on alternate days.
Outdoor construction work is barred and some industrial plants are told to cease or reduce operations, with some schools also urged to close.
The measures, while welcomed by many, created difficulties for working parents who had nowhere to send their children.
“Some parents still brought their children this morning, hoping that the teachers could at least mind them, but they had no choice but to leave them at home alone,” Li Jianguo, a primary school caretaker, told AFP. The school would be closed all week, he added.
On its social media feed, Beijing’s environmental protection bureau posted a steady stream of comments in an attempt to demonstrate that its inspectors were working hard to ensure clean air.
Administrators said they were “dealing with” businesses that had violated the orders and had disciplined several factories, in one case with a 30,000 yuan (US$4,700) fine.
One bus manufacturer, they wrote, had reduced production from 30 vehicles a day to around six.
Meanwhile, Beijing also is getting tough with those who violate traffic restrictions and production suspension after the red alert for smog was issued.
As of 6pm yesterday, traffic police had found 3,690 breaches of car use restrictions. More than 1,000 cases involving cement trucks and other prohibited vehicles were found.
“After the red alert was issued, our workload nearly tripled,” said Wu Peng, deputy head of the tail gas discharge administration station in Daxing District.
Beijing environment officials inspected 587 major pollutant dischargers yesterday and found 38 of them did not abide by the order of production suspension.
Beijing’s residents made their feelings about the current situation known on social media. “Can we apply to work at home? The air in our office is totally ‘poison gas’,” said one Weibo poster.
Despite the red alert, the capital’s streets remained busy, with only a few people donning masks to protect themselves against the foul air. Traffic, however, appeared lighter than usual.
Engineer Wang Shaoang drives an electric car, so not subject to the odd-even rule, an attempt by the government to promote the use of cleaner vehicles.
The measures imposed for the alert were good, he said, “but we need much more radical moves than this.”
A slew of Beijingers said via social media that they planned to escape the gloom. They needed to travel relatively far, however, because nearly all of China’s northeast was affected, and many cities — including nearby Shijiazhuang — were even worse than Beijing.
After hearing of the school closures on Monday, Beijing mom Jiang Xia booked tickets for a 3,200-kilometer flight to the relatively clean southwestern city of Kunming for herself and her 8-year-old daughter who suffers nosebleeds in the smog. In an interview from Kunming she said they had hectically packed before dawn yesterday for their flight.
“But when we arrived in Kunming and breathed in this clean, fresh air, I was very glad I made this move, a very wise decision,” Jiang said.
A Beijing resident surnamed Du said he was taking advantage of a lack of crowds near the capital’s ancient Forbidden City to stroll and take photographs.
“I like this kind of haziness. It gives a blurry feeling and makes you feel like you’re in a dream,” Du told The Associated Press.
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