^^ Will definitely improve the traffic situation (especially if the discrimination is removed). Not so sure about pollution. Pollution is not so easy to get rid off as they are making it seem. Even China, which has had car rationing in some places does not claim drastic results.
Air quality of Delhi took a refreshing turn on Saturday as strong wind helped blow away concentration of particulate matters, improving pollution level to the 'moderate' category, a rarity during the city's winters.
The very first sentence from that article. Its weird that they would put a title that make it seem like its all thanks to odd even rule when in the first line itself, they mention that the winds dispersed the particles.
This is a pretty common occurrence though. Even after Diwali, it usually rains and it helps bring the particles down to earth along with the rain and thus improves the air quality. Winds alone are not so helpful. They do disperse the particles and you get a feeling that the air quality is better where the pollution concentration is high, but all it means is that that instead of being concentrated in specific places, the particles are spread over a wide area.
Rather than odd/even rationing of vehicles, I am more in favor of measures like rationing fuel or aggressive taxing of consumers of vehicular fuels. Vehicles themselves can also be taxed to discourage thoughtless purchase.
Delhi/Chandigarh has a lot of household with multiple vehicles and this odd/even rule is going to encourage more purchase of vehicles. Anybody with a vehicle in their household should be taxes 200% on the second vehicle of the same type.
But at the same time, ample public transport should be made available and encouraged. ride sharing/car pooling services should be encouraged. Use of non polluting transportation should be rewarded. My last workplace used to offer a special salary benefit for those who either walked or used a bicycle to come to work.
Fire Crackers, Cigarettes should also be heavily taxed. I am not sure why they are ignoring this, but pollution levels in Delhi multiplies by 5 times or more on Diwali eve and the decrease from the peaks is slow unless there are rains or winds.
