It is revealed that during the Olympics, in order to cope with the traffic restriction, some white-collar workers already purchased a second car, and this round of car restrictions will undoubtedly encourage some more people to do the same.

Li Anding (www.sina.com.cn): Looking around the world, a lot of cities are plagued by traffic congestion, but none are trying to ease the traffic by restricting private car use.

Initially restrictions of this kind may help smooth the traffic and reduce exhaust emissions, but ultimately this measure will result in more cars on Beijing's roads, which apart from anything else means more parking lots are needed.

The fundamental way out for Beijing's traffic congestion is to focus on developing public transport especially the railway network, so that a convenient and comfortable public transport system will discourage private car owners from taking to the roads. Beijing has done a lot in this regard, but building a public transport system is not an easy program, and we hope to see the completion of more subways. Apart from public transport, we should encourage those who live in the suburbs to share cars so as to reduce traffic congestion.

Beijing became an auto society long before other cities in China, so let it set a good example in dealing with congestion, but not by simply imposing car bans on all.

Jin Guokun (Beijing News): In order to protect air and ensure smooth traffic flow, Beijing has decided to extend traffic restrictions. Whether this measure is effective or not, we want to see evaluation statistics based on scientific and specific analysis. On the whole, from November 2008 to February 2009, the air quality report prepared by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau showed air quality was better than when there was no traffic restriction in the previous years. However, the improvement of air quality is a result of many efforts, and we don't know to what extent the traffic restriction has contributed to this. If the government wants to win the public's support and understanding, there must be detailed public information in this regard.

The roads belong to all of us and there should be some restriction if there are too many cars on the road. However, traffic restriction is not the only way to take private cars off the roads. There are many other ways, for example, the government can bring in more public buses and improve the other public transport options.

Find the root cause

Tang Jun (Beijing News): We hope to thoroughly solve the traffic congestion problem in Beijing, but we need to address the root cause.

By instituting vehicle restrictions, it is true that Beijing is addressing the symptom but not the cause. But at the present stage we have no other choices and we have to extend the restriction as a compulsory measure.

From the legal perspective, to make the auto restriction a long-term measure, we need to hold hearings and listen to people's opinions.

Compared with cities in developed countries, Beijing's car numbers are not that high, so why are our problems more serious than theirs?

An important reason lies in the different residential structure in Beijing. In developed countries, middle and low-income people tend to live downtown, while the rich live in the suburbs. In Beijing, the opposite applies. As the middle and low-income people compose a big proportion of the city's population and they go to work or do their shopping at the same time, traffic congestions are an obvious result and gridlock is not uncommon for kilometers. Therefore, the fundamental way to tackle Beijing's traffic congestion problem is to reconstruct Beijing's urban layout. Unfortunately it's already too late to do this.

Zhu Tong (Beijing Sci-Tech Report): We have to admit that the auto restriction measure taken during the Olympics helped a lot to improve Beijing's air quality. As we know, 40-50 percent of air pollutants are contributed by motor vehicles.

Thanks to the strict vehicle ban, Beijing's air quality is improving steadily. The number of "blue sky" days rose from 100 days in 1998 to 246 days currently and at the same time, the annual concentration of major pollutants in the air, like sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitric dioxide on average has dropped from 10 percent to 6 percent.

During the Olympics, we could see clear skies and sunshine in Beijing. The clean air deeply impressed athletes from around the world.

However, according to statistics provided by relevant departments, traffic congestion and air pollution began to worsen again. Beijing's air quality is nothing for us to rejoice about. The huge exhaust emission from cars is among the many factors that are contributing to the air pollution.