By Qiu Lin

When Zhang Ximan bought her second car before the Olympics, she did not expect Beijing's vehicle restrictions to become permanent.

"I had to buy a new car because I needed it to send my 4-year-old son to kindergarten every day," says Zhang, who lives outside the Fifth Ring Road in eastern Beijing.

Her son's kindergarten is in Haidian, northwestern Beijing, an 80-minute drive away. Zhang thinks the long journey is worthwhile because the kindergarten is affiliated with prestigious Peking University and so guarantees a good education for her son in future.

Beijing banned vehicles on alternate days during the Olympics and Paralympics, depending on whether their license plates ended in an odd or even number.

Combined with other drastic measures, like shutting down construction sites and factories, Beijing saw clearer skies and smooth traffic during the two-month ban.

According to a Greenpeace China poll, 54 percent of car owners want car restrictions to be retained to keep Beijing's air clean and a whopping 93.8 percent of Beijingers want the city's public transport system to be expanded further.

Professor Li Dihua from the Environment and Ecology Department of Peking University says now is the best time to extend the traffic restrictions and build an environment-oriented society.

"I think the public should see this policy from the standpoint of a long-term government strategy to improve city planning and the quality of public life," Li says, adding the policy will change China's concept of urbanization.

Zhang's second car spared her two months of inconvenience during the Olympics but now she has new frustrations.

The municipal government recently launched a six-month trial ban on all cars effective for one weekday each week depending on the last digit of the license plates.

Cars are divided into five groups: license plates ending in a 1 or a 6 are banned on Mondays; those with plates ending in a 2 or a 7 are banned on Tuesdays, and so on. A third of local government vehicles will be banned from the road.

The Municipal Committee of Communications says the trial ban has taken 800,000 cars off the road every weekday.

Consumers like Zhang took advantage of China's relaxed car ownership rules, snapping up autos in one of the biggest car-buying bonanzas ever, clogging Beijing's streets and exacerbating the pollution. The city now has 3.5 million vehicles, including 1,200 new ones on the road every day.

In compensation, the restricted vehicles are exempt from one month of vehicle tax and road maintenance fees each year.

"I don't care how much tax they cut in compensation - it is causing me a lot of trouble," says Zhang. "Now I can't drive my car on Monday - do you know how terrible the traffic is on Monday in Beijing? It's a nightmare to take a bus."

Although Beijing built four new subway lines ahead of the Olympics to ease transport during the Games, a new line is yet to go near Zhang's home.

"I would take the subway if there was one nearby but there is no subway and the buses are just too crowded, too slow and too stinky for my baby," Zhang says.

Now she takes a taxi to get her son to kindergarten on Mondays, while her husband drives the other car to work. "I have to leave home at 6 am to avoid traffic," she says.

Like most people, Zhang was tolerant of the restrictions during the Olympics and Paralympics but she finds the new controls unbearable.

"I definitely support the ban on government vehicles - I even think 30 percent is not enough - but I strongly oppose the ban on private cars," Zhang says.

She does not think the restrictions will benefit the air quality much. "I can see factories spewing out black smoke from my house," she complains, "so if they are not shut down, how can the air quality be improved"?

Zhang also believes a policy that affects everyone should be open to public submissions before being implemented and she is not alone.

A survey of 6,200 people conducted by the People's Daily's website showed that more than 93 percent believed the new trial ban should first have been submitted to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress for discussion.

The website conducted another survey, in which nearly 400,000 Internet users participated; 67 percent agreed that "banning private cars from the road is unreasonable" and supported the ban on government cars; 28 percent said it would contribute to cleaner air and better traffic flows.

Early in the new traffic ban, public debate continues and some Internet users are even questioning the legitimacy of such a policy.

The government maintains the Law on Road Traffic Safety and the Beijing municipal government's Regulations to Implement Law on Prevention of Air Pollution give it the right to limit motor vehicles on the road to optimize traffic and air quality conditions.

Gan Peizhong, a law professor at Peking University, supports vehicle restrictions but thinks local government has sidestepped the legislative process with the new ban.

"There are serious flaws in the procedure," he says, claiming the public should have had the chance to express their concerns before it was implemented. Nor is he convinced this is the end of it. "We cannot predict what the government is going to do after the trial," he says.

There is also a belief that private cars are personal assets under the Property Law, in which case owners have rights pertaining to their ownership, use and disposal.

Beijing lawyer Li Dejia says the government's good intentions should not be at the expense of citizens giving up their rights to private property.

"But I can still understand that the government is trying to balance the long-term public interest and a short-term conflict," he says.

Prof Zhang Ming, of Renmin University, is less understanding and strongly opposes the ban on private cars. "Some small business people depend on their cars to make a living and a day without their car will cause a loss of income," he says.

Zhang suggests that more government-owned cars be banned. "The government has a lot to do to improve Beijing's air and traffic," he says, "but one thing it shouldn't do is ban private cars from the road."

He also fears the government might in future apply the same logic - personal sacrifice for the good of the majority - in other areas of life.

As for distressed mother Zhang Ximan, she says: "I don't know how long I can put up with all this inconvenience. Isn't there anything else the government can do to improve the air and traffic?"

She is now considering circumventing the ban by doing something available to very few Beijingers. Having made a fortune as a developer in the real estate industry during the boom, she is now thinking of ... buying a third car.

(China Daily October 30, 2008)