Green Daily

To follow-up on a post I wrote in August, Olympics bring breathable air to Beijing, will it last? -- it looks like the answer might still be a big maybe. Throughout the Olympics and Special Olympics, Beijing had introduced some pretty draconian measures to help ensure that the "green Olympics" wouldn't go down in history as the gray and smoggy Olympics -- and for the most part they seemed to work.

Sure enough, after the conclusion of the 2008 Paralympics a few weeks ago, the odd-even license plate ban was lifted and Beijing went back to driving as usual. In only a matter of days, the particulate matter in Beijing's air skyrocketed back to levels determined "dangerous for sensitive individuals." Now, it appears that the government has reconsidered its business as usual plan of action. Instead they're instituting a new, less severe, driving ban. Starting on October 11th, drivers with license plates ending in a 1 or 6 will be restricted from driving on Mondays, 2 and 7 on Tuesdays, and so on. That's about 800,000 cars a day.

Will this new measure work? It's hard to say, since many people will just purchase another car so they can drive each day of the week. Beijing is also implementing other measures to limit driving.

[via Treehugger]