The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou plans to continue the traffic restriction measure that had kept up to 800,000 cars off the roads a day during the Asian Games and the Asian Para Games, the China Daily reported.
Under the even-odd license plate method introduced by the city's environmental protection bureau before the Asiad, cars in the city were banned from roads from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. on alternate days based on the last digit of the license plate.
The traffic rule was in place from Nov. 1 to Nov. 29 for the Asian Games and again from Dec. 5 to Dec. 21 for the Asian Para Games.
Guangzhou has witnessed an increase of traffic congestion after the conclusion of Asian Para Games.
"We are working on a package of measures to tackle gridlock, including the odd-even license plate number plan, which proved effective during the games." Guangzhou communication commission director Xian Weixiong told the China Daily.
"The temporary measure was intended to improve traffic flows during the games, so we'll only continue it on designated roads at designated times," Xian added.
Guangzhou, which sits in the Pearl River Delta, the hub of China's export-oriented "workshop of the world," has about 2.1 million vehicles on its roads.
