Beijing offers bikes for 'green' Games

New bikes will be available at 230 outlets outside Olympic venues, hotels, shopping districts and other locations.

Heavily polluted Beijing has pledged to stage an environmentally friendly Olympics and is working to improve air quality and reduce traffic congestion for the 8-24th August 2008 Olympic Games.

A Beijing firm is already running pilot projects, offering 5,000 bikes for rent at 30 downtown locations which will be expanded to more then 200 during the Games.

Users can pick up and drop off the bikes at any of the locations at USD 50 dollars deposit and a fee of 20 yuan a day.

Meanwhile,Monday is the final day of a four-day trial in which 1.3 million cars have been banned from the roads to enable officials to assess how such a measure implemented during the Games would affect pollution.

Even so, stubborn smog has enveloped the city for the past week, and the traffic ban has had little apparent effect on air quality. - DDNEWS