Society

Major policies released to ease Beijing's traffic

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-24 07:29

Limit on new car licenses

Only 240,000 car licenses will be issued in 2011 through number-drawing (lottery), with a monthly average of 20,000. Private car buyers will get 88 percent of the licenses, while the rest will go to organizations, such as companies, government agencies and operational small-sized passenger cars.

Applicants must have permanent Beijing resident permits, except for foreigners or people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan who live in Beijing for more than one year, Beijing-stationed soldiers, those who hold the capital's work and residence certificate, or temporary residency holders who have been paying social insurance and income tax in Beijing for five consecutive years. Applicants should have no cars registered under their names before applying.

Traffic restrictions

Vehicles with license plates from other cities, except for long-distance passenger cars, inter-provincial tourism cars and special vehicles, such as police cars and ambulances, are prohibited from entering areas within the 5th Ring Road from 7 am to 9 am and 5 pm to 8 pm during workdays.

Govt car limitation

Beijing government agencies and institutions entirely funded by the city government are not allowed to have any additional cars for the next five years.

Parking fees

The city will be categorized into three zones according to their levels of traffic congestion, with higher parking fees in congested areas. Parking fees in the busiest area will be 10 yuan ($1.5) an hour. New parking fees will be charged starting from April 1.

Public transportation

Bus routes starting with the number 9, which indicates they link the downtown to suburban areas, will be connected with subway transits outside the 3rd and 4th ring roads. An additional 354 trains will be added to subway lines 2, 4, 5 and 10, and the interval between trains on these lines will be reduced to two minutes. School shuttle systems will be developed.

Parking spaces at transfer points

More than 30,000 government-invested parking spaces will be built at transfer points of subway transits. Low charges will be collected at these parking lots.

Bikes encouraged

A bike-sharing system featuring 1,000 sites equipped with more than 50,000 bikes will be completed during the next five years.

The first group of 10,000 bikes will be used at more than 200 bike service stations along subway lines 4 and 5, and the Batong line. Bike parking lots will be built before the end of 2012 along subway lines 6, 8, 9 and 10, and the Xijiao line.

Roads

As many as five citywide expressways with a total distance of 37.3 km will be built before the end of 2012. More than 200 km of new roads will also be completed in downtown Beijing by then.

Express tunnels will be built under the eastern and western wings of the 2nd Ring Road and Taijichang Dajie. The Xishan tunnel will also be built.