The government has urged people in 108 cities, including
Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, to walk, ride bicycles and use
public transport instead of driving cars for a week till September
22.
Initiated by the Ministry of Construction (MOC), the first
national urban public transport campaign, "Green Transport and
Health", will see one or more special zones in the 108 cities.
These will be open only to pedestrians, bicycles, taxis and buses
from 7 AM to 7 PM on September 22, or the "No Car
Day".
The move is an attempt to raise residents' "awareness on energy
saving and environmental protection" because the country's cities
are plagued by traffic congestions and pollution caused by too many
vehicles on the road.
The weeklong campaign will be repeated during the same period
every year, the MOC said. MOC Vice-Minister Qiu Baoxing told
reporters the campaign will save 33 million liters of gas and cut
emissions by 3,000 tons on the "No Car Day". Moreover, it will also
reduce the chances of accidents on the cities' roads.
"The move is to highlight the position of public transport,
which should play an even bigger role in modern cities to conserve
energy and control emissions," he said.
Fifty percent of the commuters in Beijing use public transport,
20 percent ride bicycles or walk and the rest drive private cars.
Hopefully, more commuters will use buses and the tube instead of
their cars because of the campaign.
The green campaign's "ambitious goal" is to make more than 50
percent commuters use public transport. And government officials
have to take the lead in this direction.
Besides, the 108 cities have to adopt at least one new measure
to promote green traffic.
Last week, Shanghai municipal government spokeswoman Jiao Yang
announced that government official will be adviced not to drive
private cars this week and that officials and employees of
State-owned enterprises have been discouraged from using private
vehicles.
Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, has announced
strict rules to ban government-owned cars to make the public
traffic week a success.
(China Daily September 17, 2007)
