Beijing is considering new plan to improve motor traffic

On January 25, Ji Lin, Beijing Municipal standing committee member and vice mayor, attended a panel discussion of the 13th Beijing Municipal People's Congress and expressed his opinions during an interview about major problems such as housing prices, the concept of the World City and a plan to limit driving. He said that due to the increase in the number of vehicles in the city, Beijing needs to take measures to limit the number of vehicles on the road. Beijing is currently considering a new plan to limit driving in the capital.

"Total production growth goal is sure to be accomplished"

Governmental reports mentioned that this year Beijing's goal for total production growth is 9 percent and the goal for fiscal revenue growth is 9 percent.

Ji Lin said the goals of both indexes are not unattainable and they are sure to be reached. "But some experts and scholars predict that economic growth this year in Beijing may be faster than in previous years."

"Increasing the attractiveness of public transportation"

Ji thinks the number of the vehicles is linked to the traffic congestion problem but it is not the only cause of the problem, because the routes that people choose to take are related to the transportation structure created by the government. "The government hopes to solve the traffic problem by increasing public facilities to facilitate the connection between public transportation and the subways and increase the overall attractiveness of public transportation."

"If limiting measures are not taken, the situation will get worse"

Ji said that Beijing is considering a plan to limit traffic. The current limiting policy will expire in April of this year. Some people think the vehicle controlling measure will help for a while but because of the increase in the number of the vehicles, the limiting measures will become less effective. "In my opinion, however, if measures are not taken, the problem will only get worse because of the rapid increase in the number of cars."

"Beijing is far from the standard of a World City"

Regarding the definition of a "World City," which appeared in government reports for the first time this year, Ji said World City is a more advanced international metropolis and has higher standards across the board. Beijing is considering what the standard of the World City should be, but has not set a specific definition yet. Ji thinks that currently Beijing is far from the standard of a World City.

Translated by LOTO