Traffic Restrictions Based on the Final Digit of a License Plate
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Guangzhou to keep even-odd license plate rule
By Qiu Quanlin GUANGZHOU - Authorities in Guangdong's provincial capital plan to retain driving restrictions based on the final digits of vehicles' license plate numbers after the Asian Games to unsnarl traffic, a city official has said. "We're working on a package of measures to tackle gridlock, including the odd-even license plate number plan, which proved effective during the Asian Games," Guangzhou communication commission director Xian Weixiong said. The measures, which will be posted online for public input before adoption, will ensure an average driving speed of 25 km an hour on urban roads within three years, Xian said. The temporary restrictions, based on whether vehicles' license plates' final digits are even or odd, had kept nearly 800,000 cars off the city's roads a day over the past two months. But the traffic congestion has increased, especially during rush hours, after the Asian Games and Asian Para Games concluded earlier this month. "The temporary measure was intended to improve traffic flows during the games, so we'll only continue it on designated roads at designated times," Xian explained. Some political advisers have urged Guangzhou's government to learn from Beijing's experience and limit vehicle registrations. "The odd-even plan will encourage some owners to buy a second car," local political adviser Han Zhipeng said. "So it's necessary to introduce a long-term measure like Beijing's." The national capital recently announced new regulations, including a sharp limitation of new vehicle registrations for 2011. From Dec 24 of this year, a license plate lottery system would allocate registration rights, Beijing's municipal government had announced. There are about 2.1 million vehicles on Guangzhou's roads. Transportation authorities have said the number does not exceed the designed capacity. There was a rise in the number of new car registrations in the city following the Nov 1 adoption of the odd-even license plate restriction. More than 2,000 vehicles were registered daily during the games, while an average of about 1,200 were registered daily throughout 2010. Guangzhou does not plan to introduce a vehicle registration limit similar to Beijing's, Xian said. "Instead, we will optimize the traffic network and enhance the development of public transportation through such means as building more metro lines in coming years."
Managing traffic still has some way to go
By Zhang Zhao Beijing government officials and political advisers called for innovative ideas for the city's management, such as land use, traffic and parking, at a recent meeting of Beijing's People's Political Consultative Conference. "There are three solutions to traffic issues - building roads, setting vehicle limits and improving management," said Zheng Wanhe, a political adviser and chairman of Wangfujing Department Store. Zheng said the government has already invested a lot in building roads, and introduced vehicle restriction policies, but much remains to be done to improve traffic flow by detailed management, which "costs little but is effective". He also said that the city center should be developed more for public functions rather than just commercial uses. During the APEC summit in Beijing last year, the city government issued an alternating odd-even license plate number car ban to prevent smog. Zheng said that it is "unrealistic" for the odd-even car ban to become a long-term policy. Zhou Zhengyu, director of Beijing Commission of Transport, agreed but said Beijing will continue traffic restrictions based on the last digit of license plate numbers this year. In the past 10 years, Beijing has witnessed its GDP more than triple, its population increase by 6.5 million people and 3.3 million additional vehicles on the roads, but its traffic index reduced from 7.3 in 2007 to 5.5 last year, indicating that traffic jams are under control. Zhou said that some new business models have contributed to easing traffic problems, one example being e-commerce. "A postal worker delivering 120 packages a day could technically mean that 120 people do not have to go out shopping," he said. Beijing now has some 5.6 million vehicles, but parking space for only 2.8 million. But just adding parking space is not the solution, said Jiang Yi, director of the Building Energy Conservation Research Center at Tsinghua University. Jiang said there are two kinds of parking lots - those in residential communities and those in city center and downtown areas - and each requires a different solution. "In residential communities, we should build as many parking spaces as possible so that every car has a 'home'," he said. "But it is just the other way around for downtown areas, where we should provide limited parking spaces so that fewer people would want to drive and more would choose public transportation." Gao Yang, assistant director of the Beijing Institute of City Planning and Design, said he had surveyed 23 residential communities across Beijing and found that more than 85 percent of car owners "had never or seldom" been ticketed for parking illegally. "The government's dereliction of duty has somehow granted them allowance, leading to fast growth and overuse of vehicles, which then brings about challenges in air quality and the environment," he said.
Beijing to Impose 'Odd-Even' License Plate Restrictions for Remainder of Winter: Report
Chinese social media has been alight with the unconfirmed but seemingly imminent imposition of "odd-even" license plate restrictions for the rest of the winter -- expected to be until March 15, which now seems to be certain after a report by Bloomberg on Saturday. If true, it means that roughly half of all motor vehicles, namely automobiles and trucks, will be banned from use every other day, based on the final digit of their license plate. This method of controlling both traffic and air pollution was first used during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but has reappeared from time to time, including in August and September 2015 ahead of the September 3 military parade, and in November 2014 for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, and also during Beijing's two recent pollution red alerts. The Bloomberg report cited sources in the Beijing Municipal Government, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy has not yet been formally announced. Odd-even restrictions have proven effective in both reducing traffic and improving air quality. After November 2014's "APEC Blue" skies, the city government pondered a permanent imposition of the rule, but dropped the matter. A raging debate on the sources of air pollution is ruffling feathers on all sides. Drivers say cars are not to blame, and the government is better off focusing their efforts on filthy power plants, diesel trucks and coal burning. Others claim (and partially rightly) that the pollution isn’t a Beijing problem at all, and is really the problem of smog billowing in from industry-heavy Hebei province and elsewhere. However, an analysis by the Beijing News shows that while waidi pollution is a problem, 2/3rds of Beijing’s bad air is generated locally, and car exhaust makes up about 31 percent of that yuck: measure the city is taking, and from where we’re breathing, we heavily subscribe to the “every little bit counts” philosophy. What with a subway that ranks amongst the world’s longest in terms of track length, streets equipped with wide bike lanes, a sizable taxi fleet and countless small-time entrepreneurs jumping on the Uber / Didi bandwagon, Beijing is perfectly primed to reduce its dependence on private motor vehicles. Odd-even gets a hearty "hell yeah!" from us. Drivers will grumble and public transportation will become more crowded, but it will be worth it. We've loved the results in the past, and if it means fewer cars and better air...yeah, do it. We dream of the day that Beijing’s populace becomes reverses the decade-long trend towards the fetishization of private car ownership and becomes more like the residents of New York City -- where private car ownership is perceieved just as much as a foolish bit of excess and a hassle as it is a status symbol or a convenience.
Knowledge Graph
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1 Beijing municipality will keep in place traffic regulations based on the final digit of a license plate designed to limit the number of cars in use on weekdays based on car number plates this year.
2 Traffic regulations based on the final digit of a license plate,set to expire on April 10, have been renewed so they will continue to be valid from April 11 this year, according to the city's work program to ease traffic congestion, released on Wednesday.
3 The policy of traffic regulations based on the final digit of a license plate can help improve environmental quality in crowded cities.