By Qiu Lin

When Zhang Ximan bought her second car before the Olympics, she did not expect Beijing's vehicle restrictions to become permanent.

"I had to buy a new car because I needed it to send my 4-year-old son to kindergarten every day," says Zhang, who lives outside the Fifth Ring Road in eastern Beijing.

Her son's kindergarten is in Haidian, northwestern Beijing, an 80-minute drive away. Zhang thinks the long journey is worthwhile because the kindergarten is affiliated with prestigious Peking University and so guarantees a good education for her son in future.

Beijing banned vehicles on alternate days during the Olympics and Paralympics, depending on whether their license plates ended in an odd or even number.

Combined with other drastic measures, like shutting down construction sites and factories, Beijing saw clearer skies and smooth traffic during the two-month ban.

According to a Greenpeace China poll, 54 percent of car owners want car restrictions to be retained to keep Beijing's air clean and a whopping 93.8 percent of Beijingers want the city's public transport system to be expanded further.

Professor Li Dihua from the Environment and Ecology Department of Peking University says now is the best time to extend the traffic restrictions and build an environment-oriented society.

"I think the public should see this policy from the standpoint of a long-term government strategy to improve city planning and the quality of public life," Li says, adding the policy will change China's concept of urbanization.

Zhang's second car spared her two months of inconvenience during the Olympics but now she has new frustrations.

The municipal government recently launched a six-month trial ban on all cars effective for one weekday each week depending on the last digit of the license plates.

Cars are divided into five groups: license plates ending in a 1 or a 6 are banned on Mondays; those with plates ending in a 2 or a 7 are banned on Tuesdays, and so on. A third of local government vehicles will be banned from the road.

The Municipal Committee of Communications says the trial ban has taken 800,000 cars off the road every weekday.

Consumers like Zhang took advantage of China's relaxed car ownership rules, snapping up autos in one of the biggest car-buying bonanzas ever, clogging Beijing's streets and exacerbating the pollution. The city now has 3.5 million vehicles, including 1,200 new ones on the road every day.

In compensation, the restricted vehicles are exempt from one month of vehicle tax and road maintenance fees each year.

"I don't care how much tax they cut in compensation - it is causing me a lot of trouble," says Zhang. "Now I can't drive my car on Monday - do you know how terrible the traffic is on Monday in Beijing? It's a nightmare to take a bus."

Although Beijing built four new subway lines ahead of the Olympics to ease transport during the Games, a new line is yet to go near Zhang's home.

"I would take the subway if there was one nearby but there is no subway and the buses are just too crowded, too slow and too stinky for my baby," Zhang says.

Now she takes a taxi to get her son to kindergarten on Mondays, while her husband drives the other car to work. "I have to leave home at 6 am to avoid traffic," she says.

Like most people, Zhang was tolerant of the restrictions during the Olympics and Paralympics but she finds the new controls unbearable.

"I definitely support the ban on government vehicles - I even think 30 percent is not enough - but I strongly oppose the ban on private cars," Zhang says.

She does not think the restrictions will benefit the air quality much. "I can see factories spewing out black smoke from my house," she complains, "so if they are not shut down, how can the air quality be improved"?

Zhang also believes a policy that affects everyone should be open to public submissions before being implemented and she is not alone.

(more on page 2)