A pavement in Wangjing is blocked by illegally parked cars, a common sight in Beijing. [Photo/China Daily]

Transport chiefs target motorists' mentality, but is move too soft?

A new ploy by transport chiefs to tame Beijing's unruly road users may be too soft to curb the behavior of most motorists, experts told METRO on Sunday.

The capital released a top 10 of commonly seen bad driving habits at a press conference on Saturday in the hope of raising awareness of "road civility". On the list was using a cell phone, not wearing a seat belt, throwing trash out of windows and overusing the car horn.

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At the launch, Zhou Zhengyu, deputy secretary-general of Beijing municipal government, said the list highlighted the obstacles that prevented Beijing from being civilized in terms of traffic and strongly urged residents to "spontaneously" quit the habits.

Yet, cultural experts and motorists suggested the move relies too much on people's "willingness" to change. With no laws to back up the government's call, most agreed that reversing the traffic trend will be hard work.

The lack of manners on the road is due to the fact "people's behavior has just kept up with the rapid speed of the country's material development", said sociologist Xia Xueluan at Peking University.

He said Chinese people have a long history of group psychology when it comes to obeying traffic rules, and explained that those who follow the rules often find it hard to justify their actions when they see many others doing the exact opposite.

"This educational work (the top 10 list) will surely help put a bit of pressure on those disobeying the rules, but I'm expecting to see more specific policies (in the future)," said Xia. "Education should always be followed by the establishment of an effective legal system and appropriate punishments."

Civil servant Han Qing, 24, agreed that the improvement of drivers' attitudes relies foremost on appropriate punishment and reward policies. "It'll take a long time for people to change their behavior," he added. "The authorities that have achieved reductions in drunken driving, for instance, have proved that only penalties yield quick results."

Mi Nan, an IT engineer and long-time driver, said fines and other punishments would have an effect on him, but he still fears they may not be enough to wipe out the problems.

"Many of the bad habits are truly education problems," he said. "For example, we're not educated from childhood on the importance of using safety belts while driving."

He also expressed concerns that the city may not have sufficient police resources to supervise and prevent illegal actions on the road.

"We used to see a lot of police on the streets stopping bad drivers, but now the number has obviously decreased," said Mi. "Even if the police catch a few and hand out steep fines, there are still many more that are beyond their reach."

Penalties are also unlikely to address the underlying issues that are hampering China from making inroads in driver behavior, argued some motorists.

Feng Xue, a Beijinger and veteran translator at a State media organization, said conflicts between pedestrians and drivers often come down to "resentment against the rich", which is partly caused by the common people's feelings about corruption.

He added that when punishments become a reality, drivers who break the rules in government-owned vehicles must be dealt with strictly.