Olympic host city Beijing has ruled out any limits on the number of private cars allowed on the Chinese capital’s notoriously congested and polluted streets.

A top transport official said Beijing, whose air pollution and traffic jams are key concerns of the International Olympic Committee, will not follow the lead of Shanghai.

Liu Xiaoming, deputy head of Beijing’s transportation committee said, ‘Instead, we will encourage citizens to use their cars more rationally and sparingly.’
Liu was quoted as saying the city would concentrate on promoting use of a revamped public transport system so that ‘car owners will willingly give up driving’.

In fairness, the city of 17 million opened a major new subway line last month and slashed fares to encourage ridership. A new light-rail line connecting downtown Beijing with the city’s airport also is set to open before the August 2008 Olympics.

Beijing had 3.08 million registered motor vehicles as of August, an average of one for every two families and the number of cars is expected to continue to soar as the city booms.

About 90% of Beijing’s roads are currently operating at full capacity with little room for expansion. The chances of citizens willingly giving up their cars are the equivalent of a plastic cat walking through hell carrying a red hot shovel.

In London it has been proved beyond doubt or debate that they ONLY way to get the traffic down is by legal mandate and serious financial impositions.

In most of Europe the pedestrianisation of the cities has slowed the march of cars.

It has been shown by the City of London that cars always expand to take the space available. Good subways, a wonderful start. Banning cars, however, it the only way to make sure it works. This is a decision that everyone will live to regret. And regret bitterly.
Source: AFP

International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogges has said Beijing is running out of time to tackle bad air quality that could disrupt next year’s Games. He said some Olympic events may have to be put off because of poor air quality.

Jacques Rogge said, ‘Time may be running out, and the conditions required for the athletes competing in endurance disciplines might not be met 100% on a given day.

‘For this reason, we may have to reschedule some events so that the health of athletes is scrupulously protected.’

Far, far more reassuring was Hein Verbruggen, a top International Olympic Committee (IOC) official, who earlier said that pollution could put back some events but described such delays as ‘normal, standard procedure’ that would not detract from the success of the Games.

He stressed, ‘There is nothing, and I repeat nothing, that is of any risk or danger that we see for the organization of next year’s Games.’

Earlier the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) congratulated Beijing on a $12-billion clean-up which had been carried out since it won the right to host the Games in 2001.

Sarah Liao, Hong Kong’s former environment minister, who is an adviser to the Beijing Olympic organizing committee probably summed up the situation the best, ‘For the short period of the Games, air quality will be fine. Our challenge is curbing pollution over the long term.’

Beijing Vice Major Liu Jingmin, a delegate to the five-yearly Party congress, said at a news conference that the blue skies Beijing was experiencing was due to the wind coming down from the north that cleaned the air in the host city of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He said, ‘Frankly speaking, we didn’t take any measures. It’s the weather that played the role.’ Such honesty in a politician is rare and is to be applauded.

Taking a longer view, however, the situation is improving.

In 2006, Beijing registered 240 ‘blue sky’ days, or days with fairly good air quality (the scientific definition is not clear), a rise of 64 days from the previous year. In September ‘blue sky’ days totaled 25, setting a record high in seven years.

Liu Jingmin, who is also executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games, said Beijing would materialize its promise of ‘Green Olympics’ by not only improving the city’s ecology and environment, but also adopting a ‘green’, environment-friendly, approach to the management of city affairs.

Partly this is being done by slashing bus and subway fares. Partly by doubling the tax on motorcycles, passenger cars, sedans and trucks.
Renewable energy has been widely used in the of Olympic projects. For instance, the residences of athletes in the Olympic Village will be installed with special heating and refrigerating facilities powered by energy tapped from a neighboring sewage disposal plant.
Photovoltaic technology based on solar energy is widely used in the competition venues.
The city’s first wind power plant has been set up in the north.
The city has moved 167 pollutive factories to the suburbs or remoter areas. At the same time of the removal, they have undergone technical innovations.
The city used to have 16,000 coal-consuming boilers. Now 15,000 of them have been upgraded to use clean energy forms.

It matters not what international newspaper or wire report you get pretty much the same conclusion — construction work for the Olympics will be finished in time.

Kevan Gosper, vice president of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) coordination commission, said ‘We are very happy with the progress. They are right on schedule with the construction.’

The main stadium, the Bird’s Nest, which will hold 91,000 spectators will be complete by the end of March next year.
The neighboring water sports complex, the ‘water cube,’ as well as the other facilities are expected to completed by the end of this year.

The plan may sound very ambitious, but the organizers are confident that the schedule can be kept.
Sun Weijia, chief of media operations at the organizing committee said, ‘It can be done. The workers labour in shifts around the clock, seven days per week.’

The media interest in the Games is a record in itself. Some 5,600 journalists and photographers were accredited by the IOC to cover the events.

On transport Beijing’s mayor Wang Qishan saw the inauguration of a new 27-kilometer subway line as ‘a sign of our determination to give priority to the development of the city’s public transport infrastructure.’ By next year, the subway lines will be extended from the current 142 kilometres to 200 kilometres to provide access to all Olympic sports facilities.

The organisers have also received accolades for the athlete’s accommodations.

Gerd Graus, an official German observer of the proceedings said, ‘The athletes will be more than pleased with the Olympic Village, which offers nice rooms with ample space and good comfort.’

Are there any problems?

The weather and the smog. The IOC has voiced concerns about the expected hot and humid weather that typically prevails in Beijing in August, as well as the smog.

Road traffic restriction trials in August this year only slightly improved the air pollution, but at least resulted in much better traffic flow.

Kevan Gosper is convinced that the measures, if rigorously maintained during the Games, will help to alleviate the otherwise daily traffic congestion. He said, ‘I don’t foresee any problems with transportation.

Zhang Xiaodong, director of transport at the Olympics, told a session  of the 14th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)  in Beijing that nearly 16,000 drivers and service personnel will keep more than 10,000 official Olympics vehicles running smoothly.

Nearly half of the 10,000 vehicles, all equipped with wireless communication devices, will exclusively serve Games events, while 2,200 shuttles and sponsors’ buses, as well as almost 2,000 rental vehicles, will be available for the Olympic community at large.

He said, ‘An integrated traffic control center with a transport operation center, seven sub-centers, and car teams set up by the Olympics transit stops and venues is to be formed.’

A similar three-layered, real-time command-and-control system will be adopted to monitor all Olympic venues, lanes and locations on a 24/7 basis.

Considerable challenges, however, remain. Nearly 5,000 members of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) and VIPs, over 12,000 athletes and team officials, 3,000 technical officials, more than 21,600 accredited media professionals, nearly 400,000 sponsors and guests, and over 100,000 staff are expected to attend the Games. They all have to be transported.

Beijing has initiated a series of drastic moves to encourage transit usage most of which involve moving people out of cars and on to subways. All the signs are it will very possibly work as planned with the odd hiccup here and there.
Source: People’s Daily Online