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New cars in Beijing cut by two-thirds to battle traffic

BBC

New rules have taken effect in China that restrict car purchases in an effort to combat serious traffic problems in the capital, Beijing.

The city authorities will allow only 240,000 vehicles to be registered for 2011 - one third of this year's total.

Car buyers have been swamping dealers in anticipation of the new rules, which will still leave about five million cars on the road in the capital.

Traffic and air pollution in Beijing is among the worst in the world.

Officials said the new rules would not solve the full extent of the city's problems, only slow the down the rate at which they are worsening.

"It will be difficult to dramatically improve the traffic situation in a short time," said Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau.

"But it can slow down the pace of worsening traffic congestion."

Car registrations will be allocated by a license plate lottery system from Friday.

Under the new rules, government departments will not be allowed to increase the size of their fleets for five years.

About 750,000 new cars appeared on Beijing's streets this year, raising the total of registered vehicles for the city 4.8m.

China overtook the US as the world's biggest car and van market in 2009, with 13.6 million vehicles sold within the country.

Scepticism Nearly 90% of the new licence plates will be allocated for residents; people driving cars into Beijing from other areas will need permits to do so.

The authorities have delayed the imposition of a congestion charge - a fee for cars to enter specified zones - saying the idea needed more study.

In anticipation of the new ruling, 30,000 new vehicles were registered in the past week, at least three times the normal rate, Xinhua state news agency reported.

"I heard that they were going to change the policy, so I wanted to buy this [car] before the year was over," one buyer named Mr Yang told the BBC. "We rushed to buy a car, because I need it for work. But it will be really inconvenient for me to drive a car when the streets become so congested," he said.

Residents say that Beijing's roads sometimes resemble car parks; a record 140 traffic jams were recorded on one evening in September.

 

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