Beijing city officials mull congestion fees to ease gridlock
Beijing plans to pass legislation this year to incorporate current traffic measures such as a lottery system for car license plates and restricted days for vehicle use. City officials also are considering congestion fees to alleviate the capital's gridlock.
The city legislature has asked the municipal government for a detailed plan on the use of "economic measures" to reduce vehicular use, which may take a few years to draw up, said Rong Jun, a spokesman and member of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport.
Traffic-induced problems such as congestion, lack of parking spaces and pollution have become a "salient city management problem."
If Beijing adopts congestion similar to those of London or Singapore, other Chinese municipalities may follow suit. Congestion fees and other ownership restrictions may reduce demand by raising the cost of operating a car.
A surge in vehicle ownership has placed increasing pressure on major cities like Beijing, where the vehicle fleet rose 17 percent over the past five years to 5.6 million units. The city government has set a ceiling of 6 million units for the year 2017.
On May 5, Beijing's city government said it would consider a plan to impose traffic congestion charges by 2020 as part of a package of measures to reform the vehicle quota system. The city began awarding new licenses through a lottery in 2011.
As part of the steps to promote electric cars, these vehicles were placed in a special category where the odds of winning a license plate are much higher than conventional autos.
Even so, about half of the plates issued for EVs in Beijing in October were not used by the expiration date in April, according to the traffic commission.
The reasons for the low take-up include a lack of charging facilities, concerns over the life span of the batteries and the unattractive trade-in price of such cars, Rong said.
Traffic-induced problems such as congestion, lack of parking spaces and pollution have become a "salient city management problem."
If Beijing adopts congestion similar to those of London or Singapore, other Chinese municipalities may follow suit. Congestion fees and other ownership restrictions may reduce demand by raising the cost of operating a car.
A surge in vehicle ownership has placed increasing pressure on major cities like Beijing, where the vehicle fleet rose 17 percent over the past five years to 5.6 million units. The city government has set a ceiling of 6 million units for the year 2017.
On May 5, Beijing's city government said it would consider a plan to impose traffic congestion charges by 2020 as part of a package of measures to reform the vehicle quota system. The city began awarding new licenses through a lottery in 2011.
As part of the steps to promote electric cars, these vehicles were placed in a special category where the odds of winning a license plate are much higher than conventional autos.
Even so, about half of the plates issued for EVs in Beijing in October were not used by the expiration date in April, according to the traffic commission.
The reasons for the low take-up include a lack of charging facilities, concerns over the life span of the batteries and the unattractive trade-in price of such cars, Rong said.
