Going Off Road

Beijing authorities have devised a new method for keeping cars off the road by using financial rewards to ease traffic jams and control emissions.

On January 30, China Beijing Environment Exchange launched a program which gives money to motorists who choose not to drive.

According to the exchange, drivers must register on the program’s public WeChat account to receive a device that monitors their vehicle’s motion, in exchange for a deposit of 998 yuan ($158), although the device is free if the driver buys insurance from the exchange’s partner company.

The driver then receives 0.5 yuan ($0.08) for each day the vehicle is not driven, with up to 20 yuan ($3.18) also on offer from the exchange’s partner companies.

The China Beijing Environment Exchange was established in 2008 under the approval of the Beijing government with the aims of reducing emissions and saving energy.

According to the Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, Beijing has more than 3 million cars.

More than 2,700 stations have been built in 800 villages, or 99 percent of townships in the province, said Jia Manhong, an official of the provincial center for disease prevention and control (CDC).

More than 15 million people received HIV tests in the province last year, and more than 90 percent of them received treatment for the virus, according to the provincial CDC.

Lu Lin, deputy head of the provincial health and family planning commission, said the stations help patients receive treatment as quickly as possible.

Intravenous drug use was once the major cause of HIV infection in Yunnan, given its position on the border of the notorious Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia.

However, those considered at a high risk of infection has expanded from drug users to ordinary people, with unprotected sex the principal means of transmission accounting for 94 percent of new infections last year.