OPINION> Commentary
Choosing alternatives
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-04 07:34

The 16-day Olympics brought to Beijing some otherwise unlikely changes.

Among which are jam-free traffic and azure blue skies.

But as the city sorts and counts legacies of the dream event, there are plenty of questions wanting answers. Will the traffic control measures outlive the Paralympics? Will the blue skies and fresh air bid us farewell along with the Paralympians?

In online opinion polls, many have expressed the hope that odd/even number design, which theoretically keeps half of the city's automobiles off the road every other day according to their plate numbers, stays. Even some car owners are reportedly behind such a proposal.

We would not stand against it should the municipal authorities determine to retain it. After all, it is a proven formula. And legal experts have relieved us of legitimacy concerns.

Still it is good to know the government is looking for a better alternative so the blue skies do not turn grey.

The clean air we breathe now came at a fairly high price. Which is much higher than ordering some of the automobiles off the road.

Polluting factories have stopped operations. Building projects have been suspended.

And the entire air quality guarantee program included neighboring Tianjin, Shanxi, Hebei and Inner Mongolia.

The traffic control mechanism alone cannot sustain the magic. And the apparently obvious solution - to make all the provisional countermeasures permanent - is actually a difficult decision to make. Unless there is a political will to maneuver a thorough reshuffle of local industrial structures in all the areas involved. Without that, the short-term financial cost alone will translate into unbearable socio-political aftermaths.

So the search for a better alternative makes perfect sense.

The main sources of pollutants above Beijing include but, are not limited to, the 28 million tons of fossil fuels burnt every year, the more than 1.4 million automobiles, and the over 5,000 construction sites.

A better air quality guarantee project cannot afford to ignore any of them.

Reducing coal burning seems to be an inevitable next step. But it is up to the municipal authorities to pace it. They know best how fast is good, and how fast is better.

Of course all of us care about the question of traffic. Thanks both to the opening of new subways and bus routes, as well as traffic control, many more people opted for public transport during the Olympic Games.

So the post-Olympic regime may work on both fronts - encouraging commuters to use public transport, and discouraging them from driving their own cars.

(China Daily 09/04/2008 page8)