Govt may alter hours to ease traffic

As Beijing continues to suffer major traffic congestion, with some 3.6 million vehicles on the streets, the government has proposed that the city's civil servants not add to rush-hour woes.

As part of a new plan, which may be approved by the end of this year, government offices will be asked to either alter their schedules so that officials don't have to clog the city's streets further during peak traffic hours, or allow officials to do their jobs from home.

Though no official figures are available to determine the exact number of government-owned vehicles in Beijing, it is estimated that "about 30 percent" of the cars using the capital's roads each day belong to State-level, municipality-level institutions and armed forces.