Beijing registered a record 22,079 new motor vehicles in just
the first 18 days of the year, as city planners brace for the
number of cars, trucks and busses to speed past three million by
May.
"We issued more than 2,400 license plates in a single day," said
a spokesman with Beijing Municipal Traffic Management Bureau. He
attributed the sharp rise in the number of registered new motor
vehicles to a buying spree that usually occurs before Spring
Festival, which falls on Feb. 18 this year.
There are now 2.88 million motor vehicles in Beijing, including
2.06 million private vehicles. The number of people with driver
licenses now exceeds 4.24 million.
It is estimated the number of motor vehicles will top 3.3
million by the time the Beijing Olympic Games are held in 2008.
Chinese experts say that while there are fewer cars in Beijing
than in London, Tokyo and Paris and Bangkok, Beijing's drivers use
their cars more frequently.
"Private car owners in the capital use their cars four times
more frequently than private car owners in Tokyo," an expert said,
blaming the high use of private cars for road congestion and
serious air pollution in Beijing.
Zhai Shuanghe, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Traffic
Management Bureau, says "increasing the length of roads can never
catch up with the growth in the number of motor vehicles."
Zhai said traffic jams are hampering the city's ability to
respond to accidents in its downtown, adding there were 5,808 road
accidents in the Chinese national capital last year, which cause
1,373 deaths.
A report on living quality in Chinese cities in 2006, published
by Beijing International Institute for Urban Development last
September, says the traffic in Beijing is the most unsatisfactory
among 287 Chinese cities.
Mayor Wang Qishan is determined to change this by taking a range
of measures to encourage more people to use public buses, including
slashing public bus travel fares beginning from Jan. 1.
The municipal government has earmarked 4.98 billion yuan (about
US$622 million) for development of public transport this year, a
rise of 1.31 billion yuan (US$164 million) from last year.
In the meantime, the municipal finance will also shed 11.67
billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) in financing improvement of public
transport infrastructure this year.
The city has also pledged to spend 100 billion yuan (US$12.6
billion) more in years ahead so that public transport will become a
prime form of people's traveling in the city.
The city's subway and light rail systems will be extended to 273
km in 2010 and to 568 km in 2015.
(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2007)