Drivers of small-engine cars can zip around Beijing's swankiest
road and the two busiest expressways after a eight-year ban was
lifted at the weekend.
The Beijing Traffic Management Bureau issued a decree on
Saturday scrapping the rule that forbade cars with an engine
displacement of less than one liter from traveling on Chang'an
Boulevard as well as the inside lanes of the Second and Third Ring
Roads.
The only restriction is that small cars cannot use the inside
lane of Chang'an Boulevard from 7 AM to 8 PM as the bureau wishes
to avert further overcrowding on the road, which already has an
average traffic flow of 7,000 vehicles per hour.
"I'm happy about the change," said Zhu Chuanxin, who lives in
the southern suburbs of Beijing and drives a 0.8-liter Alto.
"The point is not how often we use Chang'an Boulevard but that
we are finally treated on a par with big-car drivers," he
added.
Many Chinese cities have restrictions on small-engine cars using
their main avenues with the explanation that they have heavy
emissions or that slow-moving cars hinder other traffic. But there
have also been complaints that such bans are for image-conscious
local officials to show off big, gleaming vehicles on the main
thoroughfares.
Beijing imposed the Chang'an Boulevard ban in 1998 and extended
it to the inside lanes of the Second and Third Ring Roads a year
later.
"These restrictive policies had some validity when they were
made, because some smaller vehicles did have problems in terms of
their emissions and technical reliability," said Zhao Ying, a
senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"But with the improvement of automobile technologies the reasons
no longer exist," he said.
Beijing removed dozens of warning signs for small cars along
Chang'an Boulevard and the ring roads on the weekend.
The policy shift follows the central government's requirement
for people to use smaller cars as they consume less oil and meet
environment-protection standards.
(China Daily April 3, 2006)