According to the Japanese version of Today's "People's Daily" (see the link above), the City of Beijing started its experiment to regulate auto traffic by allowing cars with even numbers on their number plates to be driven only on even-numbered days and odd-numbered cars only on odd-numbered days. This experiment will last for 4 days and then a decision will be made as to whether it is to be adopted during the Olympics next year. Although this is said to reduce the number of cars on the streets by 1/3, this kind of regulation is least efficienct from the economic viewpoint. The same result could be obtained much more efficiently by imposing congestion taxes or increasing parking fees in the central city.
