Home » Opinion » Chinese Views
No easy options to ease big city traffic morass, air pollution
By Mei Xinyu |
December 27, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
HOWEVER desperately car makers may anticipate restrictions of car purchase to be relaxed in big cities like Beijing, they are likely to be tightened, rather than eased in the foreseeable future.
It's not if but when we will see adoption of curbs on car ownership, such as congestion fees, higher parking meter rates and rising number plate prices.
The case for introducing these curbs is strong given the need to develop and upgrade cities' transport systems.
If densely populated cities are to mitigate traffic jams and head off a repetition of the monstrous photochemical smog that occasionally shrouds Los Angeles, they need to build a sustainable and optimum urban transport system favoring public transport over private cars. This approach is obvious in the populous East Asian region.
Worsening congestion
In China, congestion is spreading and worsening with each passing day. The social and economic consequences are challenging people's endurance.
From the Pearl River Delta in the south to Beijing in the north, the pervading haze generated by car exhausts is increasingly getting public attention, so much so that the term PM2.5, referring to the tiny airborne particulates pivotal to formation of haze, has become a buzzword almost overnight in mass media.
Under these circumstances, a functioning government cannot afford to let the growth of private cars continue unchecked.
Theoretically speaking, if the authorities want reduce both congestion and car exhaust and not curtail citizens' freedom to buy cars, a few options are on the table: cut the size of official car fleets, expand the scale of even-and-odd number plate policy that allows private cars on roads on alternate days, and limit or ban use of private cars on workdays.
The problem with these options, of course, is that none is doable or very effective.
If we strictly define official cars as those belonging to government agencies and state-affiliated companies and exclude cars procured by firms - which are treated as official in daily parlance - it would be naive to believe that trimming official car fleets will help disentangle snarled traffic.
Private cars represent the overwhelming majority of cars in China. Blaming official cars for congestion is thus invalid and misleading.
Besides, many cities owe their development to the fact that they were planned and built as provincial capitals or municipalities, a status that offers enormous resources and opportunities that draw in waves of talent.
Should we restrict the use of official cars, making it harder and costlier for government workers to perform their duties, the government bodies they represent would be better off just moving to elsewhere. Then cities that lose their privileged status will founder.
This is something official car-bashers haven't envisaged and wouldn't wish for.
As for the even-and-odd plate scheme, it has been employed in Mexico City and Beijing.
Although it has shown some effect in easing traffic, wealthy citizens and institutions have coped by simply buying another car.
This countermeasure seriously eviscerates the license plate policy and contributes to wasteful spending.
For those who argue for less private car traffic on workdays and relaxed control on weekends, their ideas are good, but won't be applicable until some point in the future.
As a matter of fact, a few years back, some lawmakers in Beijing, where I reside, had floated such a proposition when private car ownership began to boom. Yet it was quickly dismissed in the face of strong opposition.
Critics at that time cried foul over suggestion of circumscribing people's rights to drive the cars they had spent so much to acquire. That's not fair, they said. Many years on, their opposition has helped to make Beijing the "most crowded of capitals" as we know it.
Online cynicism
In 2000, I came to Beijing for work after getting my doctorate. Back then it was possible for vehicles to hurtle along on the city's Second Ring Road at 5pm, the beginning of evening rush hour.
Now even the outer-lying Third Ring Road is often congested at 7pm or 8pm.
Don't be fooled by online criticism of entangled traffic and air pollution. It is often voiced by cynics who pretend to be concerned about these issues yet are reluctant to sacrifice their own comforts for any improvement.
Even if officials do succeed in banning private cars on workdays, an uncooperative public will make it costly to enforce and may swiftly scuttle it.
In this atmosphere, Chinese car makers had better lower their expectation for the bar to be lowered on car purchase.
In big cities where it is increasingly expensive to drive cars, consumers' irrational buying mania may well recede. The number of low- and middle-income people who aspire to car ownership beyond their means will likely dwindle.
Auto makers will have to focus more on satisfying the demands of high-income customers, and to do so requires them to upgrade their product lineup faster.
The author is a senior researcher under the Ministry of Commerce. The views are his own. Shanghai Daily reporter Ni Tao translated and edited his article from the Chinese.
It's not if but when we will see adoption of curbs on car ownership, such as congestion fees, higher parking meter rates and rising number plate prices.
The case for introducing these curbs is strong given the need to develop and upgrade cities' transport systems.
If densely populated cities are to mitigate traffic jams and head off a repetition of the monstrous photochemical smog that occasionally shrouds Los Angeles, they need to build a sustainable and optimum urban transport system favoring public transport over private cars. This approach is obvious in the populous East Asian region.
Worsening congestion
In China, congestion is spreading and worsening with each passing day. The social and economic consequences are challenging people's endurance.
From the Pearl River Delta in the south to Beijing in the north, the pervading haze generated by car exhausts is increasingly getting public attention, so much so that the term PM2.5, referring to the tiny airborne particulates pivotal to formation of haze, has become a buzzword almost overnight in mass media.
Under these circumstances, a functioning government cannot afford to let the growth of private cars continue unchecked.
Theoretically speaking, if the authorities want reduce both congestion and car exhaust and not curtail citizens' freedom to buy cars, a few options are on the table: cut the size of official car fleets, expand the scale of even-and-odd number plate policy that allows private cars on roads on alternate days, and limit or ban use of private cars on workdays.
The problem with these options, of course, is that none is doable or very effective.
If we strictly define official cars as those belonging to government agencies and state-affiliated companies and exclude cars procured by firms - which are treated as official in daily parlance - it would be naive to believe that trimming official car fleets will help disentangle snarled traffic.
Private cars represent the overwhelming majority of cars in China. Blaming official cars for congestion is thus invalid and misleading.
Besides, many cities owe their development to the fact that they were planned and built as provincial capitals or municipalities, a status that offers enormous resources and opportunities that draw in waves of talent.
Should we restrict the use of official cars, making it harder and costlier for government workers to perform their duties, the government bodies they represent would be better off just moving to elsewhere. Then cities that lose their privileged status will founder.
This is something official car-bashers haven't envisaged and wouldn't wish for.
As for the even-and-odd plate scheme, it has been employed in Mexico City and Beijing.
Although it has shown some effect in easing traffic, wealthy citizens and institutions have coped by simply buying another car.
This countermeasure seriously eviscerates the license plate policy and contributes to wasteful spending.
For those who argue for less private car traffic on workdays and relaxed control on weekends, their ideas are good, but won't be applicable until some point in the future.
As a matter of fact, a few years back, some lawmakers in Beijing, where I reside, had floated such a proposition when private car ownership began to boom. Yet it was quickly dismissed in the face of strong opposition.
Critics at that time cried foul over suggestion of circumscribing people's rights to drive the cars they had spent so much to acquire. That's not fair, they said. Many years on, their opposition has helped to make Beijing the "most crowded of capitals" as we know it.
Online cynicism
In 2000, I came to Beijing for work after getting my doctorate. Back then it was possible for vehicles to hurtle along on the city's Second Ring Road at 5pm, the beginning of evening rush hour.
Now even the outer-lying Third Ring Road is often congested at 7pm or 8pm.
Don't be fooled by online criticism of entangled traffic and air pollution. It is often voiced by cynics who pretend to be concerned about these issues yet are reluctant to sacrifice their own comforts for any improvement.
Even if officials do succeed in banning private cars on workdays, an uncooperative public will make it costly to enforce and may swiftly scuttle it.
In this atmosphere, Chinese car makers had better lower their expectation for the bar to be lowered on car purchase.
In big cities where it is increasingly expensive to drive cars, consumers' irrational buying mania may well recede. The number of low- and middle-income people who aspire to car ownership beyond their means will likely dwindle.
Auto makers will have to focus more on satisfying the demands of high-income customers, and to do so requires them to upgrade their product lineup faster.
The author is a senior researcher under the Ministry of Commerce. The views are his own. Shanghai Daily reporter Ni Tao translated and edited his article from the Chinese.
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