Beijing Imposes Measures to Ease Traffic Jams |
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VOA Breaking News (Voice of America)
December 23, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Officials in Beijing say they will sharply reduce the number of new vehicle registrations in 2011 in an effort to ease the city's massive traffic jams.
The municipal government announced Thursday that license plates will be issued to just 240,000 vehicles next year — a little more than one-third of this year's total. A record 30,000 new vehicles were registered in Beijing last week alone.
The city said it will set up a lottery system to determine who gets the new registrations. Beijing will also impose restrictions on vehicles that are not registered in Beijing.
According to official estimates, there are already 4.76 million vehicles in the Chinese capital, as more and more affluent residents crave automobiles. Cars are banned from the roads on certain days of the week, based on their license plate numbers.
China overtook the United States as the world's biggest automotive market last year, with more than 13 million vehicles sold, an increase of at least 45 percent from the year before.
VOA Breaking News (Voice of America)
December 23, 2010 at 11:15 am
Officials in Beijing say they will sharply reduce the number of new vehicle registrations in 2011 in an effort to ease the city's massive traffic jams.
The municipal government announced Thursday that license plates will be issued to just 240,000 vehicles next year — a little more than one-third of this year's total. A record 30,000 new vehicles were registered in Beijing last week alone.
The city said it will set up a lottery system to determine who gets the new registrations. Beijing will also impose restrictions on vehicles that are not registered Beijing.
According to official estimates, there are already 4.76 million vehicles in the Chinese capital, as more and more affluent residents crave automobiles. Cars are banned from the roads on certain days of the week, based on their license plate numbers.
China overtook the United States as the world's biggest automotive market last year, with more than 13 million vehicles sold, an increase of at least 45 percent from the year before.