Beijing tightens jaywalking punishments

BEIJING - Beijing on Monday launched a campaign to strengthen punishments for pedestrians and drivers of non-motorized vehicles who violate road crossing rules, a move to tighten traffic regulations and ensure road safety, local authorities said.

Pedestrians who take the lead to run a red light or disobey traffic management risk fines of 10 yuan ($1.62) while those doing so while riding non-motorized vehicles face fines of 20 yuan, the municipal traffic control department said.

China has enforced a regulation fining pedestrians who run red lights since 1986. Under the regulation, pedestrians who run red lights may be fined 5 yuan.

A Chinese law on road transportation safety, which took effect in May 2004, also prescribed that pedestrians, passengers and drivers of non-motorized vehicles who have violated relevant traffic rules or laws will be warned or fined 5 to 50 yuan.

However, violations of traffic rules, especially road-crossing problems, have proved hard to eradicate.

Cooperation between traffic police and traffic control coordinators has been strengthened and their work has proven effective as of the tightened rules being launched.

On Monday morning, Xinhua reporters witnessed two people who had violated traffic rules at a busy crossing on Ping'an Street in Xicheng District being fined 20 yuan each.

A nationwide campaign to discourage pedestrians from running red lights commenced in April, said sources with the Ministry of Public Security.

For about one month before the introduction of the tightened rules, Beijing traffic police have educated people caught running red lights, said Wang Anguo, deputy director with the Xicheng branch of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau.

Statistics from the bureau showed that fines were applied in 20,000 cases of traffic rule violations by pedestrians or non-motorized vehicle drivers in the Chinese capital in April, a month-on-month rise by 48 percent.

The bureau has also checked the city's transport facilities, especially traffic lights at road crossings, to ensure pedestrians' safety when they cross the road.