Introducing Congestion Charging in China

What should a Beijing congestion charge system look like? (Road Pricing, Sep. 8, 2011)

Also discussed here: Beijing 'plans congestion charge' to ease traffic woes (BBC News-Asia-Pacific, Sep. 8, 2011)

Today, the focus is on plans to introduce congestion pricing to the capital of the country which now has the world’s largest market for cars and trucks, China. The review article describes the options available given recent advances in technology and experience gained from systems in cities, such as London, Stockholm and Singapore.



Key Quotes:

“Congestion fees are to be introduced on some roads in the Chinese capital Beijing in a bid to tackle chronic traffic problems.. The capital has 4.8m registered vehicles, and residents say the traffic jams are sometimes so bad the roads resemble car parks.. China overtook the US as the world's biggest car and van market in 2009, with 13.6 million vehicles sold within the country”

“Simply charging individual routes will result in diversion, and simply charging one big zone will have only limited impact”

“the matter of number plate recognition and maintaining a high quality number plate database (and enforcement system to recover fines), can be minimized if all vehicles are required to have a DSRC device that is sophisticated enough to be used for tolling”

“the best targeting could be done with a GPS based system measuring distance”

“tag and beacon/DSRC type system.. Beijing, within the 5th ring road, can be split between major arterials to form zones.. Trips on the boundary roads could remain untolled, far better to allow efficient trips around the zones, but to penalise for travelling further”

“what to do with the money…use it to pay for road maintenance and upgrades, improved pedestrian and cycling facilities, or offset other taxes or restrictions”

Related articles

• Traffic-clogged Beijing 'plans congestion charge' (bbc.co.uk)
• The Politics of Congestion Pricing (pollutionfree.wordpress.com)
• VW avoids congestion fee (confused.com)
• Eco-Cars Avoid Congestion Charge (confused.com)
• 'No' vote predicted for referendum (autonetinsurance.co.uk)
• What does Traffic Congestion Cost us? (pollutionfree.wordpress.com)
• Beijing plans congestion fees to ease traffic (guardian.co.uk)
• Car Dependency and Exclusion from Social Mobility (pollutionfree.wordpress.com)