Big cities and major highways across the country will introduce intelligent transport systems (ITS) within the next five years, officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology said at a Britain-China ITS forum held yesterday in Beijing.

The various ITS systems employ computerized information, electronic and communications technologies to rationalize transportation.

The system has been rapidly developed in Britain and other industrialized countries.

China and Britain started cooperation in the 1980s to help the nation develop ITS-based road management.

"The advanced system is also expected to help arrange parking services and solve the 'Chinese-style problem' of bicycles and motor vehicles competing for road space as in Beijing," said Cai Wenqin, an official with the ministry's Department of High-Tech Development and Industrialization.

China's regional governments have attached great importance to ITS development. Beijing will build 122 ITS-based centers for reporting traffic accidents and parking systems around the commercial heart of Wangfujing Street, according to Cai.

The capital is also working out schemes to create a favorable transport environment for the 2008 Olympic Games, sources from the Beijing Public Transport Bureau said.

Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, will invest 12 billion yuan (US$1.45 billion) in the next few years, using ITS to help ease traffic congestion.

China began to officially use ITS in transportation in the mid-1990s. The country has developed such ITS products as traffic management, traffic information service, supervision on traffic rules violations and electronic toll collection systems.

Traffic jams and accidents have become increasingly serious in China with the fast urbanization progress and the rising number of motor vehicles.

Relevant statistics indicated the country witnessed more than 660,000 road traffic accidents of various degrees during the first 10 months of last year, killing more than 70,000 people.

(China Daily March 5, 2002)