Beijing will continue to limit new vehicle registrations through a lottery system next year to hold down the number of vehicles on the road, the transportation authority said on Thursday.

Li Xiaosong, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport, told a news conference on Thursday that granting car registrations via a lottery system is an effective way to prevent the number of vehicles from rising quickly.

A woman stands on a pedestrian bridge overlooking the Fourth Ring Road in northeast Beijing during rush hour in September. [Photo by Wang Jing / China Daily]

The measure was introduced in 2011 to cap new car ownership at 240,000 a year.

The capital had nearly 5.19 million vehicles as of the end of November, compared with 4.81 million at the end of 2010.

In 2011, only 173,000 new cars were registered, a 78 percent decrease from 2010.

As Beijing residents own a large number of vehicles and the traffic gridlock is still severe, the city needs to continue the restrictive system, Li said.

"We are studying measures as well as the new-vehicle registration quota for 2013," he said.