China Car Times seldom ventures into the great fog of Beijing, where the streets are paved with spittle and the traffic barely moves (even at non peak hours) Beijing is hot, its expensive, and we dont like sitting in traffic waiting for the light to go green - we much prefer Qingdao where we can go as fast as we like and waiting for the traffic lights to change doesnt take 2 hours. It seems Beijings car population has exploded over the past few years, will this cause a major headache for Beijings already pretty bad atmosphere? Of course it will.
EVERY 1.46 families in Beijing own one car, Beijing statistics watchdogs said, Xinhua news agency reported today.
Beijing Statistics Bureau and Beijing Headquarter of the National Bureau of Statistics of China said that in April, 79,700 vehicles were sold in Beijing, up 21 percent over the same period last year and hitting an all-time monthly high.
Of the sales, 42,000 are new cars, increasing 48.4 percent from March and 14.3 percent against April of 2006 and making this April the highest in growth rate since 2001.
Beijing’s vehicles now exceed 3 million, the report said.
The booming sales of vehicles in Beijing has worsened air pollution from exhaust gases and caused traffic jams, the report said.
Beijing announced at the end of May that the city will cut the number of vehicles running on its streets during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to improve traffic flow and reduce air pollution.
Will Beijing enact a Tokyo style ban on cars over a certain age? We hope so, more cheap second hand cars!
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