I think this is a bit misleading, to blame normal vehicular traffic for the Beijing type of pollution. For one, we know that the Beijing pollution is high in diesel and dust particles, these are not generated by passenger cars. Normal gas engines emissions are much lighter, and rise and disappate faster, plus with modern cars, the amount of particles is quite low.
But just drive on the fifth ring and you can see where the big problems are. Heavy trucks, with virtually no emissions controls. There seems to be virtually no regulation of these vehicles emissions. Combine that with the giant layer of dry sand and dust which covers the entire city, and is stirred by all this activity, and you quickly can see why its so bad. High rise building, empty pile of dirt lot, another high rise building, then another uncovered pile of dirt.
I am kind of surprised with all of the talk of electric vehicles, some company isn't starting to market an electric industrial vehicle to replace all the diesel junk running around. I think the technology already exists to do this, and large trucks are well suited to handle the weight of heavy batteries.
