Focus
Continued driving restriction upsets city's car owners
By Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-08 07:52
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People check a new car at the Beijing Yayuncun Car Market. Currently in Beijing, some 2,000 new cars hit the roads every day. |
As Beijing extends the controversial driving restriction on Sunday, the debate over what to do about the capital's traffic nightmare remains one of the city's biggest headaches.
There have been opposing responses among auto dealers and car owners since the local government announced to extend the one-year-long car ban last Friday.
Dealers at Beijing's largest auto markets, happy that the government did not impose a car ownership restriction, said they expected a continuing rise in sales.
But car owners, already bearing the toll of driving restrictions, traffic congestion, soaring fuel and parking rates, called the government move "ridiculous", saying the existing ban has failed to curb traffic congestion.
"Thousands of new cars hit the roads every day. You buy a car, the government takes the revenue and you enter a vicious circle," said Tang Ying, a travel agent who parks his sedan for 15 yuan per hour outside his office in Wangfujing every day.
The government's favorable policies and the public's insatiable demand for private wheels have continued to make the roads more crowded, a further 800,000 new cars were added last year. Currently an alarming 2,000 new cars hit the roads every day.
There are more than 36 private cars for every 100 Beijing households, according to the Beijing bureau of statistics. A figure that reinforces the fact that Beijing is a city heavily reliant on cars.
The 4.2-million cars in the city, the insufficiency of public transport and the lack of commuting choices have all contributed to Beijing's traffic chaos after the traffic-controlled 2008 Olympics. Traffic management police told METRO that the increasing number of minor collisions caused by new drivers have also significantly contributed to slowing Beijing's traffic in the last two years.
While the authorities introduced the car ban in an attempt to force up to 20 percent of Beijing's private cars to stay at home each day, some argue the existing ban seems to be having little impact. To solve the issue, the city needs more than a quick-fix solution like car use restrictions, experts said.
"We estimate that Beijing's congestion situation will get worse this year as a result of the growth in private car ownership if the authorities do not act," Guo Jifu, director of the government-funded Beijing Transportation Research Center, told METRO.
Ou Guoli, an economics professor with Beijing Jiaotong University said the car industry was benefiting from the car rush, but that the cost was too high.
"The traffic authorities will have to come up with new ideas to break the deadlock," he said.
Beijing's transport commission chief Liu Xiaoming said last month that while authorities will leave the auto industry alone and encourage private car ownership, they will also build more subways and roads, and expand bike lanes, as well as building more bus terminals.
"There is no point in controlling the ownership of cars, because Beijing's roads were already overrun when the number hit the three-million mark," said Mao Baohua, a Beijing-based government advisor on transportation policies.
The only choice now is to use financial policies such as issuing high emission taxes and parking fees, he added.
The economic planning authority almost doubled the parking fees in 13 downtown areas this month in a bid to ease congestion.
Some expect the government to implement a congestion tax, following the example of notoriously congested cities like Singapore and London. But those moves will not come until the extended car ban expires in two years, experts predict.
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Beijing has doubled the parking rates in 13 commercial and business areas in Beijing. The picture shows a roadside parking lot, which charges quite cheaply, is filled with cars.[ Shi Huili / for China Daily] |
