Easy riders

Easy riders

• Source: Global Times
• [10:19 March 11 2011]
• Comments

Rush hour traffic on Jianguo Lu on December 14, 2010 Photo: Wang Zi

By Yan Shuang

Free car pooling should be advocated citywide as a way to alleviate traffic, according to a Beijing resident who has been offering free rides to tens of thousands passengers in the city and submitted a proposal through a CPPCC member Tuesday.

Wang Yong, 36, from Hunan Province and president of Brand China Industry Union, has been offering free rides on his way to work for 13 years.

"Car pooling saves energy, is environmentally friendly and keeps cars off the road," Wang, author of the proposal that he has submitted to the CPPCC three years in a row, told the Global Times Thursday.

The proposal suggests developing a free car-pooling system in larger residential communities, which would allow willing car owners and passengers to sign long-term contracts to insure a steady stream of rides.

Small vehicles with three or more passengers would be charged less at tollbooths on expressways and for parking in areas with heavy traffic, according to the proposal.

'Difficult to implement'

According to Wang, though the government appreciated the proposal, questions still remain.

"They said it's difficult to implement since it would involve too many governmental departments and take a lot of work to coordinate," he said.

"How would supply meet the demand for free rides, and how would we be able to differentiate a car pool from an illegal cab?" Wang Yuqing, director of Committee of Population, Resources and Environment of the CPPCC, asked at a meeting on March 8, Beijing News reported Thursday.

Got insurance?

Safety is another key issue surrounding a free car-pooling system.

"It's very kind of a driver to offer someone else a free ride, but who will pay if they have an accident?" said Xu Shi, a resident who lives in Huilongguan, Changping district.

"It would be necessary to have a type of compulsory insurance for car poolers, which would cover any car accident where the driver was not at fault," Yue Cheng, a Beijing lawyer, who also attended the meeting, told the Global Times Thursday.

Contracts signed between drivers and passengers would also stipulate that participants would take individual responsibility in case of accident, according to Wang.