Enforcing law can ease traffic woes

We were waiting for a stoplight to turn green in Beijing on Tuesday when a champagne-colored Mazda-6 with Snoopy painted on the right rear door screeched to a halt.

We could tell the driver was impatient. Sure enough, the car sped through the next stoplight and disappeared into the distance.

We were not surprised to notice that the speeding Mazda was missing its rear license plate. It is common knowledge that vehicles without a rear license plate often break the law, because they cannot be identified by police cameras. Scofflaws who don't have time to remove their license plates sometimes cover them with a CD, a piece of paper, or a strip of cloth.