Now the car owners in Beijing will have to bear congestion fees to ease the traffic flow. The new role has been suggested by the five year plan released by Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport. At the Beginning of this year the number of vehicles on the streets of Beijing surpassed 5 million.
This make the city as the most congested Chinese cities. Song Guohua an associate professor in transport planning and management at Beijing Jiaotong University said, “Congestion fees have been a key topic of research by the city’s transport department in thepast several years”. Song added, “As mega cities face more serious traffic congestion, levying congestion fees has become atrend. In general, I think the method is necessary and rational.”
But Song also added that more should be done before the congestion charges are levied. The professor suggested that the city must improve the public transport system to provide better options for those who give up using private cars and choose to use public transport.
The plan says that the Beijing government will devote more effort to developing public transportation. Half of all the urban areas are expected to choose public transport system by the end of 2015 while the total mileage of the urban railway system will reach 660 kms.
