[sustran] Car plate sales raise billions for Shanghai

[Cornie Huizenga]

Dear all,

 See article below, which is an excellent illustration of how to implement
TDM in practice. Shanghai is raising this money ($ 652 million) on the
basis of about 100,000 new vehicles per year.   The average price per plate
is about 12-15% of the price it costs in Singapore to get the right to buy
a car.

 There must be a large range of cities across Asia that have far greater
numbers of new vehicles enter the fleet. An increasing number of these
cities are suffering increased congestion, accidents, air pollution and at
the same time improvements in public transport and Non Motorized Transport
Infrastructure and Services is held back by the lack of funding.

Shanghai has a well established public transport system but in cities where
this is not yet the case it would be possible, making use of the proceeds
of plate sales to:

   - build 50 kilometer of BRT per year @ $ 7 million per km ~ total cost
   about $350 million
   - build 100 km of bikelane per year @ $ 50,000 per km ~ total cost about
   $ 50 million
   - build/ rehabilitate 150 km of sidewalk per year @ $ 60,000 per km ~
   total cost about $ 90 million
   - Operate a public bike scheme at annual cost of $ 15 million
   - Invest annually in public spaces $ 50 million
   - Upgrade annually 4000 polluting public transport vehicles - motorized
   three wheelers @ $3000 at total cost of $12 million
   - Upgrade annually 500 polluting public transport vehicles - 4 wheeled @
   $ 100,000 at a total cost of $ 50 million
   - Maintain city air quality monitoring system at $ 2 million
   - Institutional Coordination and capacity building at $ 5 million
   - Public Campaigns on Road Safety, Public Transport and targetted
   subsidies for public transport at $ 25 million

All of this while the number of cars would grow at much lower pace than in
an unrestrained situation. This reduced growth will translate in lower
deaths, less congestion, reduced air pollution which if translated in
monetary cost would again be in millions of dollars.

All in all a pretty convincing case I would say.

Why is it then that are so few cities which are willing to follow the
example of Shanghai? Is it ignorance on the benefits of such a measure, or
is it a question of power?

Please note that the article says that residents planning to buy a car are
against while others (who do not drive) are in favor. This makes me think
of a quote of Jaipal Reddy the former Minister for Urban Development in
India who at the opening of a workshop on urban transport acpuple of years
back remarked that transport planning in India had been dominated by class
interests whereby 90% of the roadspace was given to 10% of the users. It
appears that the Shanghai approach offers a great opportunity for the
"privileged" 10% to give back to the 90% which does not drive a car.

Cornie

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*Car plate sales raise billions for Shanghai*

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nsp/Metro/2011/11/25/Car%2Bplate%2Bsales%2Braise%2Bbillions%2Bfor%2BShanghai/

By Dong Zhen | 2011-11-25 |


The Shanghai Finance Bureau said fiscal income last year from plate
auctions hit 4.15 billion yuan (US$652.7 million), compared to 2009's 2.59
billion.

The bureau's report showed the city government last year spent 2.4 billion
yuan from the accumulated income from plate auctions on supporting public
transport.

It was used to subsidize transit bus companies's purchases of greener
buses, cover losses incurred by offering free rides to senior citizens and
funding discount programs to encourage more people to take public
transport.

The total spent on such measures in 2009 was 3.04 billion yuan.

The report did not explain the variance but breakdowns showed the subsidies
for discounted mass transit programs and free rides for seniors were lower
last year than in 2009. But the cost to support companies buying greener
buses increased, reflecting the government's determination to introduce
more lower-emission buses on local streets.

The report also disclosed that there was still 3.59 billion yuan in the
plate auctions account at the end of last year.

Despite calls from some city residents, Shanghai government officials have
repeatedly said there are no plans to drop the practice of auctioning
plates. The auctions, which began in 1994, were still important to help
curb road congestion and limit the rise in the number of private vehicles
in the city, officials said.

Public opinion seems to be split. Residents planning to buy a car are
opposed to plate auctions, while supporters of the practice say that
without the auctions traffic conditions in the city would be much worse.

The city government pledged to spend the income from plate auctions on
improving the mass transit services, including building new Metro lines.

Car plate prices dropped for the first time this year at this month's
auction, closing at an average 47,635 yuan, down 6,373 yuan from October,
auction organizer Shanghai Commodity International Co said.

But analysts say the rising trend would continue in the long term. In
August, the plate price reached 52,000 yuan, the highest in almost four
years and equivalent to the cost of buying a small car.

The city's total fiscal income in the first nine months of this year
reached about 281 billion yuan, an increase of 25 percent from a year
earlier, the bureau said.


-- 
Cornie Huizenga
Joint Convener
Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport
Mobile: +86 13901949332
cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org
www.slocat.net