14 DAY TRIAL // Air pollution in China is pretty bad. In fact, it's so bad that people have even coined a new word to describe the situation: Airpocalypse. In an attempt to lower air concentrations of harmful chemical compounds, high officials in the city of Baoding have recently restricted road use to vehicles sporting certain license plates.
Thus, this past Friday, only cars whose license plates ended in an even number were allowed to drive up and down city roads.
On Saturday, these vehicles remained parked, and those sporting a license plate with an odd number at the end got to stretch their wheels.
Ambulances, buses and public service buses did not have to abide by these new rules, The Verge reports. Otherwise put, it was business as usual in this Chinese city, except for the fact that their air got a tad clearer.
High officials in Baoding have not yet announced plans to make such road use restrictions permanent. Still, given the fact that in the aftermath of this experiments the city switched from being “severely” polluted to being just “lightly polluted,” maybe they should.