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January 2013 NASA satellite image of air pollution near the Chinese capital of Beijing
The municipality of Beijing, China is going to be implementing traffic congestion fees on vehicles by 2017 to address increased air pollution. The plans were revealed as the city government published a five-year plan to deal with that pollution. Parking fees would also be increased and the areas where only locally registered cars and trucks are permitted to be used will be expanded. At the end of last year, Beijing had more than 5.2 million registered vehicles and city officials would like to keep that number below 6 million by 2017. Three other cities in China besides Beijing restrict new car and light truck sales, Shanghai, Gungzhou and Guiyang.
13 Comments on “City of Beijing Implementing Traffic Congestion Fees to Slow New Car Registrations...”
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Where was the 2008, Five Year Plan, for managing automotive sales and congestion growth? (Or couldn’t they find one to steal and copy?)
I was wondering about that too.
Ever since they were preparing for the Beijing Olympics at the turn of the century, there were lots of talks and plans about reducing pollution.
All they could accomplish was a forced ban on vehicles during the period of the Olympic games themselves, then they returned to their polluting ways.
Ugh look at that pollution! Pretty soon it’s going to be snowing on the 4th of July haha! Too many of those suckers not to regulate it.
If you want to get rid of pollution, target the factories, not the cars. In the US, 9% of air pollution is caused by road traffic. Okay, emissions standards in China are most likely lagging behind those of the US. But to a point where cars not built to US and European standards so greatly overwhelm the market that their specific limitations would solve air pollution troubles?! Be sensible, man!
I’m all for saving the Earth and clean air for fish to breath and whatnot. Yeah, I bet you thought fish stayed underwater because they need to. Nope, it’s because of air pollution. Having said that. I demand a world-wide petition for the governments of the world to plug up every single active volcano and place a 5-year ban on all new eruptions. Volcanos being the number 1 contributor to air pollution.
Wow, there’s volcanos in Beijing? From the looks of it, there’s one right in the City Centre. How cool! I can’t wait to see it on my next trip!
Who could tell under all the pollution? It looks like there could be.
But let’s not forget that an SVT Raptor will actual clean the air of hydrocarbons, emitting fewer hydrocarbons than are found in the ambient air.
http://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/emissions-test-car-vs-truck-vs-leaf-blower.html
Ironic and true!
I know, I’m quoting (and linking) edmunds. That is likely enough to get me banned for life and mocked by TTAC B&B for all eternity…
The wise ruler keeps his subjects’ gas tanks full and their minds empty.
Remember, pollution controls are overly restrictive in the United States.
I suspect a lot of this also has to do with coal burning electric plants. Pretty soon the Chinese will learn the hard way that indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels causes massive problems…just like we learned 50-60 years ago.
I’d say they’ve already figured it out, it’s why they built one of the world’s largest hydroelectric dams and are building a large number (32) of modern nuclear power plants.
yeah, well now perhaps they should consider electric or hybrid only cars to plug into those modern power plants before they choke to death on the smog.
That world’s largest hydroelectric dams only produces 2% of the electricity China is using now. It costed way more than its share to build.
It has already displaced 1M+ people. They are mostly farmers and entered a state of extreme poverty after being uprooted and transported to other provinces.
Beijing municipality also limits new vehicle registrations with a lottery system for license tags. It doesn’t seem to have much of a dent in the growth of new vehicles on the roads.
The source of this pollution is a massive number of coal-fired electric plants, and mostly unrestricted pollution from industrial sources.
Running that pea soup through an internal combustion engine with a catalytic converter might just make it a bit cleaner! (Maybe not, but relatively, almost cleaner!)