The capital of east China's Jiangsu Province is considering imposing a
congestion fee to reduce traffic jams within the city.
Officials with the city's development and reform department
recently told the Jinling Evening News that they were
mulling the idea of levying a fee on vehicles entering the center
of the city during peak hours.
Like other big cities in China, Nanjing has struggled to
accommodate the growing number of vehicles clogging its streets.
The situation has grown worse in recent years the average speed of
a vehicle on a street in Nanjing is about 20 kilometers per
hour.?
That is slower than when Nanjing residents drove around in
horse-drawn carts.
The city is also considering other measures to ease traffic,
such as raising the tax on car purchases and parking fees,
according to a draft White Paper on the city's transport
development.
A detailed version of the congestion fee plan is not yet
available. Any such scheme will be subject to a public hearing
before being implemented.
Car owners dismayed
However, the initial reaction from car-owners has been anything
but positive judging by the comments left on online bulletins.
"Private car owners already have a heavy burden to bear because
of the high purchase tax, road tax, oil fees and parking fees,"
said a typical post from a netizen named Xiao Di.
Some experts said the city should improve its public transport
offerings and develop a high-tech traffic management system before
resorting to congestion fees, according to Nanfang
Daily.
Several other cities in the country including Beijing, Guangzhou
and Shanghai have also considered congestion fees in recent years,
but they have all shelved the idea fearing a public backlash.
London became the first city in Britain to introduce a
congestion fee in 2003. Most vehicles entering the city have to pay
8 pounds (about $15) a day.
Singapore and some US cities have also used fees to ease traffic
problems.
However, China's situation is unique because its public
transport and road systems remain underdeveloped.
"To make matters worse, many public cars are used for private
purposes in this country, which also contributes to traffic jams,"
Huangpu Jia, a researcher at the Hangzhou Traffic Research Center
in Zhejiang Province, told the Oriental Morning Post.
Public cars, such as those owned by the government, take up a
large share of road resources in Chinese cities.
For example, there were few traffic jams when the government
banned 80 percent of Beijing's public cars from using the streets
during the Sino-Africa Summit in November.
Beijing has issued new rules to promote the use of public
transport to reduce the chronic traffic jams on its streets.
Under the new rules, bus fares for more than 200 routes were
fixed at 1 yuan starting at the beginning of this year. And
passengers with transit cards receive a 60 percent discount on all
tickets.
As more people buy private vehicles, fewer people use public
transport. However, the new rules have helped reduce the number of
traffic jams, the Beijing Morning Post said.
Many netizens have already urged Nanjing to profit from
Beijing's experience by introducing similar measures.
(China Daily January 9, 2007)