Beijing will adopt another vehicle restriction rule after the current limits expire next week, according to municipal authorities.

A new two-year vehicle use limit will become effective on April 11, immediately after the current one-year restriction ends, a Beijing Traffic Management Bureau spokesman said on Friday.

The new rule will mirror the current one, he added. The restriction bans private cars in Beijing's urban areas one work day a week.

It is based on the last digit of the license plate with, for example, vehicles with a last digit of 2 or 7 having to be off the road on Monday.

Details are on the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau's Website, bjjtgl.gov.cn.

More than 90 percent of 2,562 Beijing residents surveyed in a poll, including 1,549 car owners and 1,013 non-owners, supported the restrictions, according to pollsters Horizon Research.

Among the car owners, 87.6 percent backed the rule, while the approval rate of non-car owners was 94.8 percent, the survey showed.

Most of those polled supported the limits for helping to relieve traffic jams and benefiting the environment.

The average rush hour driving speed in Beijing has risen by about 15 percent under the restrictions, said Beijing Transportation research official Guo Jifu.

(Xinhua News Agency April 4, 2010)