[sustran] Beijing to limit issuance of new car plates

[Faizan Jawed]

Beijing to limit issuance of new car plates
http://www.china.org.cn/china/2010-12/23/content_21604345.htm


The Beijing municipal government said Thursday it will limit 2011 issuance
of new car license plates to 240,000 and implement harsh traffic control
measures to ease the city's traffic congestion.

Many Chinese netizens called this the "toughest congestion-tackling measure
in history". From Friday, Beijing car buyers will have to draw lots before
obtaining a car license plate, said Zhou Zhengyu, deputy secretary-general
of the Beijing municipal government.

Private car buyers will receive 88 percent, or 17,600 plates per month on
average, of the city's new license plates. Two percent will be for
commercial use. The remaining 10 percent will go to company and government
institutions and others, Zhou said.

Among those qualified include permanent residents, military servicemen,
foreigners, residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and those who have no
residency status but have paid personal income tax or made social security
contributions in the city for at least five straight years.

Also, the Beijing municipal government agencies and public institutions will
not increase the size of their motor vehicle fleets during the next five
years.

"The number of cars in Beijing has grown quickly as urbanization and
modernization progresses. This has caused severe congestions in some
downtown areas, especially at rush hour," he added. "Decisive measures shall
be taken to control traffic in Beijing. Otherwise, the congestion will only
get worse."

In 2010, more than 700,000 news cars were sold in Beijing, bringing the
city's total number of automobiles to more than 4.7 million, statistics from
the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport (BMCT) show.

According to the city's regulation, a Beijing driver will be permitted to
own only one car in his or her name.

The regulation says car owners who replace their old vehicles will be
automatically given new car plates and not have to take part in the
lot-drawing.

In order to ease traffic congestion, the regulation also adjusted parking
fee standards in non-residential areas. The new standards will take effect
from April 1, 2011.

Under the new rules, parking fees inside the 5th Ring Road will be charged
per 15 minutes rather than per 30 minutes.

Parking fees in the city will be from 2 yuan to 10 yuan per hour.

Cars registered outside of Beijing will be banned from being driven inside
the 5th Ring Road on work days during the rush hours of 7 to 9 a.m.and 5 to
8 p.m.

Beijing could also launch an odd-even license plate number system that
allows driving cars on alternate days in rush hours in some congested areas
in bad weather, at major events or on important holidays.

The city used the odd-even traffic control measure to ease traffic during
the 2008 Olympic Games. Currently, motor vehicles are banned from the roads
inside the 5th Ring Road from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. one work day per week.

Amid others measures, Beijing will also improve city planning, speed the
development of some outskirt areas and invest more on public transport.

The new measures will be a blow to car dealerships in Beijing, said Su Hui,
a director of the China Automobile Dealers Association.

"Beijing's 450 4S dealerships will have to restructure. Some of them will be
forced out of the market, as sales will plunge from about 800,000 annually
to 240,000," said Su, a former manager at the Yayuncun Automobile Trade
Market, the biggest car dealership complex in Beijing.

Xiong Chuanlin, deputy secretary general of the Association of Automobile
Manufacturers, said the restrictions were unfair to potential buyers. The
city should, rather, strengthen transport management and regulate vehicle
use to tackle traffic jams, he said.

Rumors about the control measures started circulating earlier this month,
sparking a car-buying frenzy.

In the past week, car ownership in the city increased by 30,000, BMCT
figures show.

At 4 p.m. Wednesday, near the end of the work day, about 100 cars were seen
still lining up at a vehicle registration office in eastern Beijing.

A man surnamed Zhao told Xinhua that he was lucky to get his car registered
before the new rules come into effect. "Some may have to wait one to two
years to get a license plate, given the large population in Beijing and the
lot-drawing process," he said.

Zhao acknowledged that he did not need a private car badly, but he bought
one ahead of schedule amid worries of possible purchase restrictions.

New car buyer Zhang Lanjie from the northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region said she arrived at the vehicle registration office at 6 a.m. before
the release of the new measures.

"There should be some measures, otherwise Beijing will become a 'dead city'
sooner or later," Zhang said.

"The restrictions, however, shouldn't target non-local residents alone," she
said. "Many non-local residents who work and live in Beijing also need motor
vehicles."