Chinanews, Beijing, September 4 – September 22, 2007 will be the first “vehicleless day” in China, and 108 cities have promised to take part in the campaign, when most of the citizens in those cities will be encouraged to travel by public transport, bicycles or on foot.On the “vehicleless day”, in Beijing, a major initiator, private cars will not be allowed to run on the roads from Tianqiao to Zhushikou and those from Wangfujing to Bamiancao. The situation in other participating cities will be similar, where certain districts will be designated as vehicleless zones.According to the statistics from the Ministry of Construction, there are 577 million urbanites and 53 million vehicles in China. The number of private cars is increasing at an annual rate of 20%. Transportation takes up 20% of the total energy consumption of the country.“A ‘vehicleless day’ will save 33 million litres of petrol and cut the emission of 3,000 tons of waste gas, not to mention that hundreds of lives will be saved from traffic accidents. I, personally, wish that more than 50% of Chinese will choose public transportation in the future, instead of the current 20%,” said Qiu Baoxing, Vice Minister of Construction.