Beijing's new traffic rules fail to curb gridlock, pollutionBeijing rolled out new traffic control measures Monday, but they had little effect as the capital's roads remained clogged and a grey smog shrouded shroud n. 1. A cloth used to wrap a body for burial; a winding sheet. 2. Something that conceals, protects, or screens: under a shroud of fog. 3. a. the city. The new measures, which are less strict than curbs used during the Beijing Olympics in August, are aimed at banning the city's 3.3 million cars from the road for one day a week each, based on license plate numbers. But Beijing Television Station's morning traffic programme showed the capital's streets jammed up as usual, while small accidents around the city ensured gridlock Gridlock A government, business or institution's inability to function at a normal level due either to complex or conflicting procedures within the administrative framework or to impending change in the business. on many roads. As Monday was the first day of the new system, police were not levying the 100 yuan Yuan (yüän), river, 540 mi (869 km) long, rising in S Guizhou prov. and flowing generally NE to Donting lake, Hunan prov., SE China. Navigation above Changde is limited by rapids to small craft. (13 dollars) fine for drivers violating the ban. The fines will begin next week, local media said. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the system, licence plates licence plate n → (placa de) matrícula ending with one or six will be banned from the roads on Monday, plates ending with two and seven on Tuesday, three and eight on Wednesday and so on. The rules, which only apply from 6:00 am until 9:00 pm and do not include weekends, are also supposed to curb air pollution, but Beijing's normally grey, smoggy smog n. 1. Fog that has become mixed and polluted with smoke. 2. A form of air pollution produced by the photochemical reaction of sunlight with hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides that have been released into the atmosphere, sky was on full display Monday. Despite the gridlock during the morning rush hour, officials insisted the new rules had improved traffic flow. "Normally the traffic here moves at between 15 and 20 kilometers per hour (nine to 12 miles an hour), today it has been moving as fast as 40 kilometres an hour," a policeman on one of Beijing's ring roads told state television. Beijing's air is among the most polluted pol·lute tr.v. pol·lut·ed, pol·lut·ing, pol·lutes 1. To make unfit for or harmful to living things, especially by the addition of waste matter. See Synonyms at contaminate. 2. in the world, and the problem is getting worse with about 1,000 new private automobiles bought each day by increasingly affluent city residents. The tighter Olympic restrictions, which expired on September 20, had limited private motorists to driving on alternate days, removing more than a million vehicles from the streets each day. The measures led to unusually blue skies. Authorities said atmospheric data showed Beijing enjoyed its best air quality in a decade thanks to the measures. 
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