Every day could be ‘parade blue’: Should Beijing prolong its partial car ban?
Beijing smog. Pic: Xiaojun Deng (Flickr CC)
For two weeks, it seemed that China had done the impossible: it had transformed Beijing’s now-trademark smoggy gray air into clear blue skies. By temporarily halting operations at hundreds of factories in the capital region and beyond, and cutting car traffic in half, Beijing’s air quality index (AQI) dropped to a healthy 17/500.
The reason behind the strict pollution-limiting measures was China’s massive parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, in which around 12,000 soldiers — among them some foreign contingents — marched and showcased military equipment, including 200 fighter jets. It was the country’s largest-ever display of military power.
According to . . . the state-run Beijing Times, officials cleaned up Beijing’s air in advance of the parade by suspending or restricting the operations of 12,255 coal-burning boilers, factories and cement-mixing stations scattered among seven provinces. About 5,700 of the enterprises were in Beijing and in Hebei province, which surrounds the city.
Aside from closing factories, authorities restricted the city’s 5 million registered cars to driving on every other day. The measures began in late August and precipitated a 15-day run of relatively clean air.(via the Los Angeles Times)
‘Parade blue’ forever…
The temporary fresh air was given an unofficial name, ‘parade blue’, which spread via China’s social media, reminiscent of what happened regarding the ‘APEC blue’ skies that briefly graced Beijing during the city’s hosting of last November’s APEC summit. In the fast-moving world of social media, the cynical tagline ‘APEC blue’ became synonymous with any briefly beautiful phenomenon.
And so it was with ‘parade blue’. The day after the parade, factories and car traffic returned to normal and Beijing’s AQI climbed to an ‘unhealthy’ 160/500 — though at the time of writing this the city’s AQI is at 46, a ‘good’ rating.
Is road space rationing a no-brainer?
Various cities around the world have experimented with compulsory reduced road traffic in order to improve air quality. Some still do. Latin American cities, such as São Paulo, Brazil and Mexico City, have implemented permanent schemes for many years. The city of Athens, Greece and the entire country of Honduras also have road space rationing policies. During the 2008 Olympics, Beijing used road space rationing to reduce urban pollution for a full two months.
Other metropolises, like London, employ a ‘congestion charge’ to limit traffic, though congestion charges have been criticized as being less egalitarian than road space rationing, which is based on cars’ license plate numbers rather than putting a fixed price on driving in the city. Of course, if you are willing to pay enough, even avoiding rationing has a price. World Bank research showed that some, more affluent, residents of Mexico City got around its ‘Hoy No Circula’ policy by buying more cars in order to have alternate license plate numbers. Some, who couldn’t afford new cars, bought older, more polluting vehicles as second cars.
Increased reliance on public transport and bicycles could work well with traffic reduction schemes. Pic: Mike Dong (Flickr CC)
Rationing, but not on its own
This opinion piece in the Rappler discusses some of the problems with road space rationing schemes, particularly in Metro Manila, the Philippines, where the policy is known as ‘coding’:
In the grand scheme of things, even the “smart” incarnations of coding do little by themselves to reduce driving. To significantly change driving attitudes, a comprehensive package of demand management policies must be implemented.
These tools include economic measures such as parking and fuel taxes, which are tried-and-tested in reducing driving demand. The proceeds of such levies often directly fund public transport improvements, which are the most crucial efforts of all in maximizing mobility of people and reducing our dependence on cars.
Manila, where road space rationing bafflingly extends even to public transport vehicles, may be an example of how not to implement such a policy. In the Philippines, as in Mexico, some license plate numbers can be chosen, making it much easier for wealthier residents to functionally make themselves exempt from the scheme.
Nonetheless, we have seen what a difference sensible anti-pollution policies can make in Beijing, even when implemented on a temporary basis. An intelligent, fair and permanent road traffic policy could drastically improve air quality in the Chinese capital, with immensebenefits to public health and productivity.
