Police officers hold the buckets stuck with road safety slogans.[Photo from Sina Weibo]

ON NOV 8 AND 9, a national police conference on urban traffic management was held in Shanghai, according to which the police will put traffic violations, especially serious illegal conducts and accidents, in the credit records of the drivers. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

The drivers that cause major accidents, such as those involving casualties, face criminal charges or other deserved punishments, but the penalties for illegal behavior that is potentially dangerous but has not caused an accident, such as running a red light, are far from enough as drivers only get a fine and decreasing points on their license, which fails to curb their bad driving habits.

That's why the new measure, namely listing illegal driving conducts into drivers' credit records, is a welcome move. It will help effectively discourage people from breaking the law. With the introduction of this new measure, people are expected to be more careful when driving.

Some cities have already adopted a similar policy, namely raising the insurance for those who have been caught breaking the rules of the road. That has proved successful because the data show a decrease in the number of drivers caught running red lights and breaking the traffic rules.

Of course, citizens' rights must be taken into consideration when implementing the policy of including driving offenses on their credit records. Drivers should be able to appeal and the power to edit people's credit records should be transparent to ensure it is not abused.

Only the rule of law can govern modern society well, and credit records best serve that purpose. The new measure is therefore welcome and we hope it can be implemented smoothly and effectively.