The frequency of severe smog seems to have made emergency measures to lessen the pollution's impact part of life for Beijing residents nowadays.

However, the report that more than 20,000 cars were found driving on the capital's roads on Saturday, ignoring the ban on vehicles according to their license plate numbers, indicates that not all the necessary measures are being strictly adhered to.

The emergency measures have proved effective in helping mitigate the severity of the immediate pollution. Data showed the average discharge of pollutants in the city dropped 30 percent just 10 hours after the first red alert measures were put in place two weeks ago.