According to Beijing News Daily, the number of jammed roads in the city reached more than 120 at 6p.m. Friday, slightly fewer than the record-breaking 140 roads Sept. 17.
Friday and Christmas Eve, on the same day, mean a traffic nightmare, a taxi driver surnamed Liu told the newspaper.
The new regulations, announced Thursday after a series of citywide debates on how to fight the capital s traffic gridlock, include restricting the licensing of new vehicles to just 240,000 in 2011, increasing parking charges and expanding public transport.
In 2010, more than 700,000 new cars were sold in Beijing, taking the total number of cars to more than 4.7 million, Xinhua reported earlier, citing statistics from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport.
According to Shenyang Evening News, more than 20,000 cars were sold Thursday alone.
However, despite being touted as the toughest congestion-tackling measure in history, the new regulations are a far cry from what the general public sees as the best way to ease traffic.
Zhong Shi, a senior auto market analyst, told the English-language Global Times that the new rules shed little light on Beijing s urban planning, which he called the root of the problem.
Beijing s traffic problems were a legacy of the past, beginning with the unscientific city structure, he said.
Song Guohua, a professor specializing in urban planning at Beijing Jiaotong University, echoed Zhong s opinion, adding that the Beijing government had encouraged people to buy cars before building more parking areas and roads.
Unfortunately, this mistake is being replicated in many other cities in China right now, he said.
Although there are many issues the new regulations fail to address, one point seems certain 2011 will be a tough year for car dealers.
Zhong said Beijing already had China s largest auto market, regarded by manufacturers as a gold mine.
The licensing restrictions blew up the gold mine, and manufacturers are now more worried that other cities will follow Beijing in enacting similar policies, he said.
Wang Yang, a salesperson at the Beijing Qingyang FAW (First Automobile Works)-Volkswagen 4S shop in Fengtai District, told the Global Times that in just under two weeks before new rules came out, his dealership sold as many cars as it normally did in a month.
However, the numbers took a major hit over the weekend, and sales were not expected to rise anytime soon.
Our customers decreased by 80 percent compared with usual times, Wang said. Let s say a salesperson sold 20 cars per month in the past. Now, he will sell just 10 cars in the same period of time.
(SD-Agencies)
