Want a new car in Beijing? Sorry, there's just to much traffic.

Arie Allstaedt

1/21/11

6:40

Want a new car in Beijing? Sorry, there's just to much traffic.

China is now the worlds top consumer in cars, even over the US. That is taking its effect directly in Beijing, where you might have seen those pictures of a behemoth of a traffic jam, and that is a daily occurrence in downtown Beijing. The problem is stemming from there being too many cars on the road, too many drivers and too many licenses being distributed. Last year there was a record of 890,000 cars sold, that is an incredible amount. The government is finally taking some initiative and setting a cap on the number of license plates being sold each month, on top of that they have banned the sale of new cars until they have started reducing the number of license plates sold. The thing is that the government is only going to choose 20,000 people to be able to receive a license plate, even though there is about 210,178 applicants applying. This new lottery style of designating who gets to drive may seem a little rash to some people, but the government had no other choice. This reduced amount of new cars on the road will give the government time to improve the roads and transportation in general. Maybe in a couple years from now, sitting in a 60 mile long traffic jam may be a thing of the past. But the bane on car sales must have some impact on the salesmen trying to support a family. Also what about the unlucky 190,000 applicants that wont be able to drive? I think that the Chinese government has a good idea, but I personally hope that they have a stellar public transportation system, or at least some bike paths.

Want a new car in Beijing? Sorry, there's just to much traffic