The capital city of south China's Guangdong Province is considering collecting higher road-use fees from motorists in an effort to alleviate congestion. Guangzhou Traffic Committee members are soliciting public opinions on a draft of measures involving congestion fees similar to those imposed in Singapore and London.
The proposals include parking fees designed to redirect vehicles to quieter parts of the city and encourage more people to use public transport. The city will begin construction on 11 new rail routes over the next five years and 3,000 buses will be added to downtown services, boosting the public transport proportion of the city's traffic volume to 70 percent from 59.6 percent last year..
Guangzhou also plans to further reform the use of official cars, which contribute to traffic jams on Guangzhou's roads. Guangzhou has almost 2.15 million registered vehicles. The city's traffic department granted more than 300,000 license plates to new car owners last year.
The number of private cars in Guangzhou has grown at an annual average rate of 22.1 percent over the past five years. The figure is 20.9 percent in Beijing and 21.5 percent in Shanghai. Guangzhou has more than 90 cars for every 1,000 residents.
Beijing, with 20 million people and 4.8 million vehicles, has imposed tough congestion-tackling measures. The issuance of new car license plates this year in the nation's capital has been reduced to 240,000, a third the number in 2010. From January 1, applications by car buyers in Beijing were subjected to a lottery-style selection method to choose who could buy a new car.
However, Guangdong officials do not plan to copy Beijing's practice of limiting vehicle registrations, because allowing more residents to own private cars is part of the provincial government's campaign to build a "Happy Guangdong Province," said Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua.
