Ji Lin, vice-mayor of Beijing, said on Wednesday that 50 percent of vehicles used by government departments, institutions and State-owned enterprises will be sealed, apart from ordering vehicles to stay off the roads every other day according to even and odd numbered license plates, to guarantee smooth traffic during the Olympic Games.

This is a move that should be lauded.

We still remember that the action to seal 490,000 public vehicles during the week in November 2006 when the Beijing Summit of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was held had considerably eased traffic congestion and air pollution in the capital.

Keeping half of the private vehicles off the roads, traffic in the capital will no doubt be much lighter and the air much cleaner.

The additional 1,800 buses that will be added to public transport and, the opening of the new subway lines, will greatly facilitate public transport and considerably reduce the inconvenience the partial ban on private cars will cause to residents.

What should be noteworthy are promises the mayor made: the partial ban will be lifted after the Games and private car owners will get financial compensation for the inconvenience the partial ban will cause them.

We get a message that the Beijing municipal government has taken into consideration the interests of its residents in mapping out the traffic control policies and has tried its best to reduce to a minimum the inconvenience the controls may cause to residents.

The partial ban will reduce 1.3 million private vehicles on the roads during the Games, and if 50 percent of public vehicles sealed could be as many as the number sealed in 2006, we will have about 1.7 million fewer cars on the roads daily.

But what about after the Games? It is not difficult to imagine how heavy the traffic and how polluted the air will be when 1.7 million vehicles take to the roads again. With private cars on the rise, the capital's traffic congestion and air pollution will get worse unless effective measures are taken.

The Olympic Games to be held in August should not only be an occasion to test the capability of the Beijing municipal government in effectively running the city, but also an opportunity for it to work out ways to encourage residents to make less use of their vehicles in favor of public transport.

(China Daily, March 14, 2008)