Shenzhen lifts license plate ban before Universiade
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China Daily, July 18, 2011
Shenzhen government withdrew its original even-odd license plate plan for the 26th World University Games in the last minute.
The local government is calling its citizens to lay off their private cars for a better traffic condition as a Universiade voluntary, rather than applying the vehicle use restriction based on the final digits of the license plate numbers like Beijing Olympics and Guangzhou Asian Games.
"Inconvenience would be brought to Shenzhen citizens if we control the vehicle compulsively and the idea is to avoid that," said Xu Wei, deputy director of Shenzhen Transport Police Station.
"There's going to be no enforcement nor punishment," Xu added. He said that notices encouraging Shenzhen residents to choose public transportation over private cars from Aug 7 to 24 would be sent out before 5 pm July 15 to the city's total eight districts.
"That's the period (Aug 7 to 24) from the day Shenzhen's packed with large number of athletes to the second day after closing ceremony," Xu explained.
Shenzhen's transportation authority is expecting to keep 30 percent of the city's about two-million vehicles off the roads. "Although we haven't set any goal out of this promotion, we believe the Shenzhen residents would support the Universiade. A cut of 30% (of cars) could guarantee the smooth traffic flow," said Xu.
Xu added that Shenzhen made the promise to the International University Sports Federation that it would take less than 60 minutes to drive from Universiade Village, where all the athletes stay, to any of the city's sports venues.
"Accommodation lanes especially dedicated to Universiade would be applied as well starting from Aug 4," he said.
Wang Rong, Shenzhen Party chief and vice-president of the Universiade organizing committee, called citizens to travel green to protect the environment at the 30-day countdown ceremony to the Games on July 13.
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