The government of south China's Guangzhou city may raise parking fees this year and study possible congestion fees and restrictions of vehicles from outside the city during rush hours, a Chinese newspaper reported Monday (Jan 10).
A draft of the 30 new measures to curb downtown traffic in the post-Asian Games period was released over the weekend. The city had ruled out restricting the issuance of new license plates, a policy Beijing had adopted, said a report of China Daily.
Guangzhou has 2.15 million automobiles, including 1.61 million cars. The number of private cars had increased by 22.1 percent annually over the last five years, a rate exceeding Beijing's and Shanghai's. About 300,000 new vehicles were licensed last year.
The average traffic speeds on the city's 60 main roads in September 2010 remained slower than 20 kilometers an hour during the evening rush hour. Authorities expected 60 percent of the main roads to be choked by 2013 if no measures are taken.
The drafted measures are intended to ensure average traffic speeds of at least 25 km an hour on major downtown roads in five years, the newspaper said.
The authorities will also study restrictions on some major roads during peak hours based on whether the final digit of a vehicle's license plate is even or odd, Xian Weixiong, director of Guangzhou's commission of transport, was quoted as saying.
