I suppose it was inevitable.

After four days of (relatively) blue skies, the summer haze has descended once more upon Beijing. Nature's palette includes many lovely hues of blue: cerulean and cyan, turquoise and teal, azure and aqua; but the blue of a Beijing sky is seemingly indescribable and lies somewhere along the visible spectrum between tar heel pride and acid-washed jeans.

Granted, what we’re looking at today, Thursday, July 24 – a sky you can’t quite call overcast – is better than the polluted pall that usually hangs over our God-forsaken city. But still, it’s a sky the color of bed sheets that have been slept in too many times. Shadows lack defined edges. Visibility barely extends beyond the buildings across the street.

Which makes us wonder, will Beijing’s ambitious plan to reduce pollution in the capital ahead of the Olympics actually work?

Cars are only allowed to drive on alternating days according to whether their license plates end in odd or even numbers (on the first day, Sunday, July 20, odd-numbered vehicles stayed home). But there are significantly more cars with even-numbered plates in Beijing because Chinese people prefer digits ending in 6 or 8, which are considered lucky.

Traffic seems slightly reduced. But as someone who lives in an apartment overlooking the East Second Ring Road between Dongsishitiao and Chaoyangmen Bridges, I can tell you that congestion remains a significant impediment to progress for at least five hours a day (7:00AM to 10:00AM and 5:00PM to 7:00PM).

Part of the problem is Olympic lanes – specially designated thoroughfares that lead to and from the Olympic Village and Venues. But the lanes are poorly marked in most places, and a normal lane can suddenly become an Olympic lane without warning. This leads to bottlenecking delays as drivers hastily merge into other lanes rather than risk steep fines.

Those who aren’t on the roads use public transportation instead, and the opening of three new subway lines this past weekend was meant to mitigate the effects of a sudden influx of straphangers. But as someone who rides the subway every day, I can tell you that the trains are packed to capacity and the list of good manners and behaviors for the Chinese people is regularly flouted.

Blue skies are always a joy, yet with clarity comes concomitant heat. Beijing is burning up. But The Weather Channel's 10-day forecast appears to indicate we’ll be getting some much-needed, man-made rain early next week. Let’s hope it can wash away this haze and cool off the city’s cramped, cantankerous commuters.