Charging to drive unlikely to cut capital's congestion

Beijing has worked out preliminary policies for a congestion charge in the city. The progress was confirmed by Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau and Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport at a recent meeting to discuss the capital's air pollution.

Based on the similar approaches taken by Singapore, London and Stockholm, Beijing's congestion charge policy, which remains in deliberation, is designed to cut the use of vehicles in the capital, especially during rush hours, and so reduce the air pollution due to vehicle emissions. The capital now has more than 5.6 million vehicles, which discharge at least 700,000 tons of pollutants every year.

Wu Hongyang, deputy chief of the Urban Transportation Research Center under the Ministry of Transport, said once Beijing implemented a congestion fee policy, other cities and regions would soon do likewise.