Beijing Makes Clearing the Roads an Olympic Sport

Wired's Autopia blog has this recent post on China's efforts to deal with gridlocked traffic in the run up to the Olympics...will it work?:

We are less than 50 days from the start of the 2008 Olympics and Beijing is wrapping up a sweeping effort to ensure sitting in gridlocked traffic doesn't become the biggest event of the games.

The city has dumped big money into the Beijing Subway, with one new line completed and two more opening later this month, and one Beijing official says the volume of traffic on the road needs to be cut by just 20 to 30 percent to ensure things go smoothly. (And, incidentally, improve the city's terrible air quality.)

How are they gonna get those cars off the road?

The city will allow cars on the road only on alternating days selected according to whether they have an odd or even license plate number. That trick is expected to reduce traffic by 45 percent. Beijing also will rely heavily on its public transit to carry 8 million athletes, journalists and spectators to and from events.

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