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Beijing to set up car-quota system
By Ho Ai Li, China Correspondent
BEIJING: The Chinese capital will restrict new car registrations for the first time, in a bid to ease massive traffic jams which have clogged the city's roads.
A quota system - similar to Singapore's certificate of entitlement (COE) system - will be set up, with only 240,000 new licence plates to be issued next year, the Beijing municipal government announced yesterday.
The figure is a sharp dip from current numbers, representing only a third of the new cars found on Beijing's roads this year.
The Chinese capital is the second Chinese city after Shanghai to adopt drastic measures to control car ownership, with balloting used to determine the new licences and check the rapid rise of its vehicle population.
The number of cars has doubled to the current 4.7 million in just five years. In comparison, the Japanese capital of Tokyo saw its car population grow from two million to four million over 22 years, noted Mr Liu Xiaoming, who is in charge of traffic in Beijing.
'Which big city can withstand such a great jump in such a short time?' he said.
If nothing is done, experts warn, traffic on Beijing's roads, which slow to 24 kmh - cycling speed - during jams, may come to a complete stop when vehicle numbers hit seven million. If sales are not restricted, analysts expect that number to be reached by as early as 2012.
But the car quota is not the only measure to tackle Beijing's biggest scourge. The city will continue to ban cars from the streets one day a week, based on licence plate numbers.
And to stop people from getting around ownership curbs by getting licences outside of Beijing, like what happened in Shanghai, the flow of non-Beijing vehicles into the city centre would be restricted, the government said yesterday.
'The crux of the problem is that vehicle growth has been too fast. We must make sure that traffic in the city centre does not worsen,' said Mr Liu.
But many in the capital greeted news of the car quota coolly and said that this would hardly alleviate the current traffic conditions.
'This policy is too simple and doesn't solve the crux of the problem. It has simply shifted pressure and costs to the public,' said Ms Chen Qin, 38, a TV editor.
'Why do ordinary folk buy cars? It's because public transport can't meet their needs.'
On its part, the Beijing government said it would build more roads and park-and-ride stations to increase public transport usage to 50 per cent, from 41 per cent now, by 2015. It also plans to add five subway lines to the current nine.
Developing a dense subway network is likely to be the best way forward, going by the experience of major cities around the world, said automobile analyst Jia Xinguang.
One key problem, though, is that Beijing tries to be many things to many people, be it a centre of culture, finance or research, he said.
'Every one of these centres will attract more people and result in more problems,' he said of the capital, which already has 22 million people.
The quota move is likely to hit China's car industry, which pipped its American counterpart to become the No. 1 market in the world last year.
As many as 30,000 Beijingers have rushed to get their cars in the past few weeks before the expected clampdown, but car traders can say goodbye to growth rates of 30 to 50 per cent, fuelled by a rising middle class and government subsidies, observers say.
'Once Beijing moves, with the backing of the State Council, other cities will follow suit. Growth rates of car sales across China may drop 10 to 15 per cent,' said Mr Jia.
Meanwhile, Xinhua news agency reported that Mr Huang Wei, the vice-mayor of Beijing who had been in charge of transport since 2008, resigned yesterday. He was appointed to a vice-chairman post in northwestern Xinjiang region, it added.
The news came amid talk that Mr Huang, 49, quit over the traffic mess in Beijing.
Additional reporting by Lina Miao and Carol Feng
One key problem is that Beijing tries to be many things to many people, be it a centre of culture, finance or research, said automobile analyst Jia Xinguang. 'Every one of these centres will attract more people and result in more problems.'
By Ho Ai Li, China Correspondent
BEIJING: The Chinese capital will restrict new car registrations for the first time, in a bid to ease massive traffic jams which have clogged the city's roads.
A quota system - similar to Singapore's certificate of entitlement (COE) system - will be set up, with only 240,000 new licence plates to be issued next year, the Beijing municipal government announced yesterday.
The figure is a sharp dip from current numbers, representing only a third of the new cars found on Beijing's roads this year.
The Chinese capital is the second Chinese city after Shanghai to adopt drastic measures to control car ownership, with balloting used to determine the new licences and check the rapid rise of its vehicle population.
The number of cars has doubled to the current 4.7 million in just five years. In comparison, the Japanese capital of Tokyo saw its car population grow from two million to four million over 22 years, noted Mr Liu Xiaoming, who is in charge of traffic in Beijing.
'Which big city can withstand such a great jump in such a short time?' he said.
If nothing is done, experts warn, traffic on Beijing's roads, which slow to 24 kmh - cycling speed - during jams, may come to a complete stop when vehicle numbers hit seven million. If sales are not restricted, analysts expect that number to be reached by as early as 2012.
But the car quota is not the only measure to tackle Beijing's biggest scourge. The city will continue to ban cars from the streets one day a week, based on licence plate numbers.
And to stop people from getting around ownership curbs by getting licences outside of Beijing, like what happened in Shanghai, the flow of non-Beijing vehicles into the city centre would be restricted, the government said yesterday.
'The crux of the problem is that vehicle growth has been too fast. We must make sure that traffic in the city centre does not worsen,' said Mr Liu.
But many in the capital greeted news of the car quota coolly and said that this would hardly alleviate the current traffic conditions.
'This policy is too simple and doesn't solve the crux of the problem. It has simply shifted pressure and costs to the public,' said Ms Chen Qin, 38, a TV editor.
'Why do ordinary folk buy cars? It's because public transport can't meet their needs.'
On its part, the Beijing government said it would build more roads and park-and-ride stations to increase public transport usage to 50 per cent, from 41 per cent now, by 2015. It also plans to add five subway lines to the current nine.
Developing a dense subway network is likely to be the best way forward, going by the experience of major cities around the world, said automobile analyst Jia Xinguang.
One key problem, though, is that Beijing tries to be many things to many people, be it a centre of culture, finance or research, he said.
'Every one of these centres will attract more people and result in more problems,' he said of the capital, which already has 22 million people.
The quota move is likely to hit China's car industry, which pipped its American counterpart to become the No. 1 market in the world last year.
As many as 30,000 Beijingers have rushed to get their cars in the past few weeks before the expected clampdown, but car traders can say goodbye to growth rates of 30 to 50 per cent, fuelled by a rising middle class and government subsidies, observers say.
'Once Beijing moves, with the backing of the State Council, other cities will follow suit. Growth rates of car sales across China may drop 10 to 15 per cent,' said Mr Jia.
Meanwhile, Xinhua news agency reported that Mr Huang Wei, the vice-mayor of Beijing who had been in charge of transport since 2008, resigned yesterday. He was appointed to a vice-chairman post in northwestern Xinjiang region, it added.
The news came amid talk that Mr Huang, 49, quit over the traffic mess in Beijing.
Additional reporting by Lina Miao and Carol Feng
One key problem is that Beijing tries to be many things to many people, be it a centre of culture, finance or research, said automobile analyst Jia Xinguang. 'Every one of these centres will attract more people and result in more problems.'
