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Lane set up for residents to fix traffic

By Yu Ran (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-24 08:38

SHANGHAI: Residents in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, will now have a seat at the table to help remedy the city's numerous traffic problems.

The city government is conducting a survey of not only residents, but Party members, legislators, political advisors and government officials on several key countermeasures that may ease the worsening traffic situation.

Possible solutions include whether to control the number of vehicles, raise the price of car license plates or charge a fee for driving during peak hours.

The city's statistics bureau will collect 15,000 questionnaires by Thursday and announce results by the end of the month.

The surveys were in part fueled by a Nov 4 pledge from Wang Guoping, Party chief of Hangzhou, who said he would work to ease the city's worsening traffic.

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Hangzhou has severe traffic jams that have coincided with the rapid rise in the amount of vehicles purchased. The number of private cars has risen more than 30 percent annually since the rate of new roads shot up 7 percent from a few years ago.

"The Zhonghe viaduct looks like a huge parking lot all the time. You're very lucky if you only get stuck in the traffic for an hour during the day. Driving a car around the city is even slower than running," said Chen Xiaoquan, a bookstore owner in Hangzhou.

In other large cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, traffic jams seem to be the norm during rush hour. Shanghai has adopted laws to cut down on the number of vehicles to alleviate traffic congestion.

Hangzhou is located about 180 km southwest of Shanghai.

After the early 1990s, Shanghai adopted an auction system to issue car plates to the highest bidders. Critics call the city's license plate "the most expensive piece of iron in China".

But demand is still high, with prices continuing to rise. In September, the lowest bid for a license fee in Shanghai was 27,200 yuan ($3,980). This month it reached 33,900 yuan.

"The license fee for a car is too expensive in Shanghai. I failed to bid on a license last month with the 33,000-yuan price. The government limits the number of licenses but more people are still buying cars," said a Shanghai resident surnamed Zhu, a car driver who has on three occasions applied for a license within the last four months. He insists that he will continue applying for the license.

Beijing, however, implemented its much talked about license-plate measure (initiated during last year's Olympics) that has allowed the city to refrain from limiting the total number of vehicles on roads.

The law limits the number of vehicles on a certain day of the week according to license numbers.

But neither Zhu in Shanghai or Chen Xiaoquan in Hangzhou believe that a policy that limits the numbers of vehicles will work.

"Most people still insist on buying private cars according to their demands in the daily life. The rising price of a license in Shanghai will encourage consumers to apply for cheaper non-Shanghai licenses, which won't change the situation of serious traffic problems," Chen said.