I love the Red Pollution Alert

[zhouhaochen]

The red pollution alert in Beijing gets a lot of negative press abroad, but I am in love with it！ For the very first time they are actually doing something about high pollution levels on the days when it actually gets bad. Half the cars of the roads in Beijing today (!) and factories closing.

 

The pollution yesterday was nowhere close to as bad as it has been previously and it wouldn't be expected to last very long (according to the weather report, Thursday the wind blow everything away anyways), still they are implementing such drastic measures. Something is finally being done!

 

I think (hope?) this might mean last week (when it was really quite bad), might have been the last time when we have seen really quite bad in Beijing. Lets see how it works and if it can really avoid a pollution spike (so far it is the similar today as yesterday, which is still not good, but not as horrible as it was last week).

 

Anyways    加油红色预警！！！

[DachZanz]

Wow!  Thanks for sharing your opinion, and glad you're enjoying it.  Do you work in Beijing?  Are you staying home?  What's the situation like for restaurants and convenience shops?  

 

I'm in Shanghai.  Weather's really quite nice today, and the pollution isn't nearly as bad over here as it is in Beijing.  

[zhouhaochen]

I am at work normally just like everyone else is today (junior and high schools are closed though). Everything else is normal, just that there is very little traffic because they took half the cars of the streets, which is quite nice.

I am not enjoying the pollution, but pollution has been around for a long time (Shanghai had similar levels last week as Beijing does today) - what I am enjoying is that they are doing something about it, namely taking off every second car of the streets and closing factories - which should have an effect I assume...

[Lu]

Especially the factories.

I think it's not so much the red alert that gets the bad press but the pollution itself. You might be right that something is now going to be done about it, I hope things get better as soon as possible.

[Shelley]

I remember years ago Mexico city had a big problem with air pollution so they brought out it system of cars with number plate ending in A one day and number plates ending in B the next day and continuing to alternating between the two.

 

Not a bad idea ? you would think it might be, but oh no the Mexicans just went out and bought one car of each letter   so there was twice as many cars in the city and no reduction in traffic and pollution.

 

Human ingenuity never ceases to amuse me.

[Lu]

Not a bad idea? You would think it might be, but oh no the Mexicans just went out and bought one car of each letter

Is that true though? For Beijing, a similar system has been in use for years now (not with 50% of the cars off the road but something like 20-30%), and there were rumours there as well that people would just buy a second car. But as someone at the time said to me: even if every time you drive on the wrong day you get a fine (which you probably won't), that's still cheaper than buying a whole second car. Not to mention that in Beijing, and surely in Mexico as well, most car owners can't afford a second car just like that.

[roddy]

The scheme in Mexico did pretty much fail - see the fourth paragraph. 

 

I don't have the details, but I suspect Beijing's regulations on car purchases, the difficulty of parking, and tougher emission standards (meaning you can't buy a cheap old banger, you'd need a newer more expensive car) make a second car a less plausible option.

[Shelley]

I think also the price of a car in Mexico at that time was much cheaper that today in Beijing. The sort of car they were happy to drive just had to get from a - b with no regard to any fancy stuff.

[ChTTay]

A parent at my school told me he could afford to buy a new car ... but that the waiting list for a registration/licence for it was insanely long. Not sure how accurate this is though... everything was being said in Chinese!!

 

As for the red alert, I'm fairly sure western media have been using stock images of pollution in Beijing/China for quite a few stories. The pollution is at 300 and has been all day - it's bad - but was 600 last week. The visibility hasn't been that bad today.

 

I'm glad they're taking action but it does seem strange that they've decided to do it now. As per 'thebeijinger' there were 4-5 times last year that should have been red alerts. One theory doing the rounds is this is to coincide with the climate talks happening in Paris. Another, more worrying one, is that someone released something particular nasty into the air!

[Angelina]

I agree @ChTTay

Plus, the viral 主要看气质 seems too much of a coincidence as well.

[roddy]

While the alert decisions are probably partly economic and political, they are based on how long severe pollution is expected to last for, and that's an inexact science. It's entirely possible to have a four day stretch of severe pollution, but for the best predictions at any point to be for only one day. 

[ChTTay]

That's true, but out of 4 or 5 periods last year that would fall into red alert, you'd hope 1 of those would have been caught by the estimates and a red alert called for. None of them were.

This red alert was given quite late too - not the 24 hours required.

[zhouhaochen]

I am pretty sure the decision of issuing a red alert was political. The whole first ten months of this year in Beijing have been very good, with a large drop in pollution compared to last year and the general impression that the measures taken so far are working. Now, in the last two months there were several times were pollution became severe (partly due to a very strange weather situation, with loads of rain and Southern winds for months), though never was a red alert issued. Someone somewhere in some ministry must have decided that it is enough and something needs to be done and some kind of directive came that when it next time gets very bad (or looks like it will) then the alert will actually be issued - and thats what happened. It was noticeable that before this red alert, the local press reported a lot about pollution and forecasts, which might have been a way to prepare the population for a red alert (I am sure not everyone is happy about not being able to drive their expensive cars half of the time anymore).

 

Obviously thats just my theory

 

For second cars, this would not be possible in Beijing due to the very strong restrictions on registering cars in Beijing today. You have to be extremely lucky to win the registration plate lottery to just get one car, getting a second one is very unlikely - unless you get an electric car which are very easy to register in Beijing.

 

For me, they can just keep the odd/even number plate restrictions in place permanently. Beijing is really nice without all the cars

 

Whatever happened, they are working harder to solve the problem, so that's good news.

[imron]

Beijing is really nice without all the cars

I remember what that was like.  I also remember when everything changed in a very small space of time - early 2003 traffic was noticeably heavier, and by 2004 most of the bike lines had been converted to car/traffic lanes.

[Angelina]

I wonder if SARS has anything to do with that?

[imron]

Nope.  It started happening before SARS.  I remember coming back to Beijing after the Chinese New Year, and when riding to/from class loads of streets that never had much traffic before, suddenly seemed to be backed up with cars.

[zhouhaochen]

I remember loads of people buying cars during SARS (and the empty subway lines)...but also that traffic jams were pretty common the year beforehand (I only got to Beijing in 2002, so do not have as much previous as @imron ).

Things can change fast - anyone remembers the promise "to make every public toilet 5 star befor the Olympics" nobody believed and a year later they had torn down and rebuilt almost every single public toilet in the whole city (not necessarily 5 star, but better than any public toilet where I am from)?

[imron]

I don't have much more previous than you. I arrived for the first time in 2001. Back then though almost every single road had a lane each way dedicated to bicycle traffic. It didn't last much longer.

[zhouhaochen]

There was another one yesterday. I am back home for Christmas, but according to the internet the air is actually quite good at the moment and there is wind predicted. Are they starting to use those alerts that liberaly now? Would be great if they did, though that would mean that driving a car in Beijing will be difficult and a lot of children will miss a lot of class at school.

 

Any reports from the field?

[Saxondale]

I was checking the AQI throughout the day (had a nice long walk around 鼓楼) and it stayed around 130, so definitely one of the better days...but the amount of masks on today made it seem like it was 500.