Beijing Grounds Drivers in Bid to Clear the Air

Beijing's notoriously clogged-up roads will get a stiff dose of decongestant today when a third of the city's vehicles will be ordered off the streets during a test run for next year's Olympic Games.

In an attempt to improve the environment as well as the traffic of one of the world's most polluted capitals, a million drivers will have to find alternative transport during the four-day trial.

Under the plan, cars with odd and even numbered plates will not be permitted on the roads on alternate days. Violators will be fined. Motorist clubs have also been asked to keep their vehicles in the garage. To take up the slack, public transport services will run longer hours and extra buses and subway trains will be laid on. Emergency vehicles are exempted, as is the city's huge fleet of taxis.

The trial was originally planned for two weeks - equal to the duration of the Games - but this was scaled back because of concerns about the disruption this would cause to the city's commercial life.

Despite its reputation as a cyclists' paradise, Beijing has embraced car culture with the same gusto as the rest of China. Thanks to rising incomes and falling car prices, the number of vehicles in the city has nearly tripled since 2000 to 3m, with almost 1,000 new cars added every day.

Poor air quality is the biggest concern of the Olympic organizers. Last week, IOC president Jacques Rogge warned that events next year might be postponed if the pollution was so high that it might hurt the performance of athletes.

The biggest beneficiaries, however, with more customers and less traffic, look set to be the city's taxi drivers.