Beijing rolls out private car restrictions to make traffic smooth during Apec summit

The Beijing municipal government will ban its nearly four million private cars from the roads on specific days, to ease congestion during the Apec summit for world leaders next month.

Beijing is set to implement an alternating odd-even scheme, where cars will be restricted from travel on particular days based on whether the last digits on their number plates are odd or even, according to the Communist Party’s newspaper People’s Daily on Thursday.

The four million private cars are roughly split between odd and even.

The scheme will run for 10 days – from November 3 to 12 – during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, for the 21-member Pacific Rim bloc that includes China, Russia, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.

The alternating car ban is aimed at easing the gridlocks that have long plagued the city. China is taking measures so that this will not be a problem during the annual Apec Economic Leader’s Week, when foreign leaders and their senior officials will be in town.

The Daily said traffic authorities anticipated a 35 per cent drop in the number of private cars driving on road and the city’s public transportation would be able to handle the anticipated three million extra commuters each day during this period.