Beijing Congestion Charges Controversy Experts Say Not Suitable for China's National Conditions

Core tips:

The capital blockade plan, especially the purchase restriction order, has been implemented for more than eight months. The traffic congestion in the capital still remains, and there has been no obvious improvement. This shows that the purchase restriction order cannot really solve the problem of traffic congestion. Is it reasonable to collect congestion fees? Is it applicable in our country?

Conversation background

At the beginning of September, the "Green Beijing" development plan for the Beijing "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period was released. The plan proposes to study and formulate traffic congestion charging plans for key road sections or areas and encourage residents to choose bus travel. However, details such as the method of charging congestion fees are not clearly defined in this plan.

As early as a few years ago, some cities proposed to impose congestion fees to alleviate traffic congestion on key road sections or areas. Once this plan came out, it immediately led to controversy. The so-called congestion charge refers to the fees charged by road users in some key areas during traffic congestion. The purpose is to use the price mechanism to limit the traffic density at the peak of urban roads, ease urban traffic congestion and improve the efficiency of urban traffic operations. Foreign cities such as Singapore, London and New York have imposed this fee.

Congestion fees are common in Western countries and are very effective in solving congestion problems. But is this method applicable in our country? If you collect, how should you charge? Is it technically feasible? Is it reasonable to impose congestion fees when public transport is already overcrowded?

Congestion fee may not be suitable for China's national conditions

Q: What do you think about the recent news that Beijing will impose a congestion charge?

Su Hui (Chairman of the Automobile Auto Market Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association): With regard to Beijing’s plans to formulate key road sections or regional traffic jams and charges, information is disclosed, public opinion is relatively numerous, and support and opposition are well-founded. Associating with the Beijing government's blockade program, especially the purchase restriction order, it has been implemented for more than eight months. The traffic congestion in the capital still remains, and no obvious improvement has occurred. What does it mean? At least, the purchase restriction order does not really solve the problem of traffic congestion. The proposed traffic congestion charging plan has given the community a clear signal that the pre-term purchase order, significant increase in parking fees, and vigorous punishment for uncontrolled parking, etc., are a series of measures that are only short-term and cannot be used for long-term solutions to traffic congestion problems. The effect will not be obvious. Need to introduce traffic congestion charging plans to adjust.

Q: Is it reasonable to collect congestion fees? What is the impact on the general public?

Su Hui: Collecting traffic congestion fees is very sensitive to society. Because the purchase restriction order only restricted the quasi-purchase car population, although the number of applications for a shake has reached 650,000, it will continue to grow in the future, after all, it is still a minority, and the number of motor vehicles in the capital has reached as high as 5 million, and there are tens of daily Tens of thousands of vehicles, even millions of vehicles from other places in Beijing, have amassed a huge crowd of more than 6 million people. All will face this rule. Therefore, the impact is huge, the scope is wide, and the degree of social attention is extremely high. Due to China's national conditions, especially the actual conditions of this huge crowd and the people they affect, it is not only extremely difficult to implement this rule, but also it is extremely difficult to be fair, just, and open under the existing conditions! The advantages and disadvantages are very clear. Do not do too much analysis and research. How is the problem researched? In what scope? In what scope do you seek opinions? How to be fair, fair and open? The great influence of the difficulty is personally considered to be much larger and more severe than the purchase restriction order. Who will bear the cost of the standard? How to pay? How to open? It will be much more difficult than if the purchase order is issued. Although several major cities in the world have already imposed traffic congestion fees, the situation of people is very different from our national conditions. People can work and succeed. Our national conditions may not be feasible.

Q: The relevant authorities will encourage citizens to travel by bus to create better public transport conditions. Do you think the time is ripe?

Su Hui: While formulating the congestion charging plan, it is theoretically correct to encourage citizens to travel by bus. Actually, how feasible is it? I do not know whether the government department has conducted field investigations and actual investigations! Metro light rails have long been overcrowded. The same is true of city center buses. The purchase restriction order has already pushed some citizens to public transport, the congestion charging scheme has been implemented, and another part of the public has also been pushed onto the bus! The problem is that although the government has a long-term plan for the development of public transport, on September 3, 2011 at the China Automotive Industry Development Forum, the leadership of the National Bureau of Statistics pointed out that Beijing’s economic growth in the first half of the year has limited the impact of purchases, the country’s lowest ranking, and the government’s financial resources. In terms of manpower and material resources, how much power can it take to substantially increase the level of Beijing's public transport? It is impossible to reach at least in the short term. It is impossible for the government to implement a traffic congestion charging plan after the public transport level has been raised. Therefore, the implementation of the traffic congestion charging plan not only tests the wisdom of the government, the determination of the government, but also tests the government's judgment on the timing.

The technical difficulty of introducing traffic jam fees is not so great. Is there any technical problem with the collection of congestion charges?

DUAN Liren (Professor, Professor, Chang'an University): From a single technical point of view, the technical difficulty of opening traffic congestion fees is not too difficult. It is only necessary to carry out technological transformation on the basis of the existing road toll system and monitoring system.

Although it is technically feasible to collect congestion charges, many problems cannot be solved by technical means. Because the procedure for starting congestion charging is complicated, it takes a long period of research. Starting from the 1970s, some foreign countries began to study and investigate the collection of congestion fees, and conducted long-term analysis of the charging methods, technical means, charging scope, and toll collection groups. This process takes at least a few years, and some even last for more than 10 years.

There are many ways to draw lessons from it. For example, London, Singapore and other places have all started to collect traffic congestion fees. At present, there are three main ways to collect congestion fees in the world. First, some cities collect congestion fees for vehicles entering the central area, such as London and Singapore. Second, some cities in Northern Europe set up checkpoints at several intersections in the urban areas, and they Congestion fees are charged; the third is to collect congestion fees for vehicles entering specific urban roads, such as setting up charge gates on some closed expressways in urban areas.

Q: Did we come when it was time to collect city congestion fees like foreign ones?

Duan Liren: My point of view on this issue is a process. Judging from the situation in various countries in the world, Singapore is now more successful, London second, and other cities just mentioned. There must be a process for this issue, which is determined by the cultural background and other factors of each country. It is not like some other traffic management measures or some other measures because it involves all aspects.

So I think if we say that everyone has realized this, under conditions that the people have already accepted, in certain regions, such as particularly congested areas, I am in favor of using economic measures to temporarily alleviate traffic congestion. However, we must be cautious about this issue, we must consider all aspects, we must allow the people to accept. This includes the congestion charge in London. The original mayor spent a long time and did a lot of work. At last, the parliament passed it, and then it was implemented. Even if congestion charges in London still have different opinions, there are also international disputes.

Q: Do you think there is a good way to solve the current traffic mitigation?

Duan Liren: I think that the municipal government is now giving priority to the development of public transport. Now, how do you find ways to use public transport? For example, it is now strengthening the end, specifically how to solve the problem within a specific range of one kilometer from the end and the beginning. For example, efforts to increase some are called micro-transports. In fact, micro-transportation is a small public in the past. The implementation in the mid-1980s was Small public.

- The people's voice -

Resolving congestion cannot allow owners to bear all costs

Many owners of private cars oppose it because the settlement of the congestion cannot allow the owner to bear all the costs. Ms. Qin, the owner of a private car in Beijing, said: “Resolving congestion is the voice of all citizens, but we cannot push all responsibility to the owners.”

She believes that in addition to the current costs related to purchase tax, fuel tax, and bridge tolls, vehicle owners spend a lot of money every year, and they have to face rising oil prices. Some of the must-have places in the downtown area, even if you have to pay for money, have to enter the city. It seems that the collection of congestion fees does not solve the fundamental problem.

Some car-free people also oppose collecting "congestion fees." The reason for this is that the current tax burden is too heavy, taxes and fees are not transparent, and there is a serious waste of public funds for public funds. They are most worried that even if they charge “congestion fees,” congestion has not improved, but it has become a new financial source for individual local governments. Among them, there are too many busses to be questioned, and the "congestion fee" will only sound unrelenting to private cars.

Many wage earners have indicated that if the fees are too high, it will undoubtedly add an unbearable burden. Under economic pressure, they try not to drive the car to the key toll road. However, for buses, the high fees will not help, because it is a public fund. For the affluent, congestion charges are not a problem for them. Before this, many people to avoid the tail number limit line, purchased two to three cars, district congestion charges are nothing to them.

In view of this, the congestion charge mainly aggravated the burden of most working-class car buyers.

Some owners said that if Beijing's public transportation is convenient and rapid, subways and public transportation can build a convenient and effective channel between home and work units, then they are also happy to give up private cars. However, travel in many places is not convenient.

Taking Mr. Li, who lives in Xicheng Township, Dongxiaokou Town, Changping District, Beijing as an example, his work place is near the Qianmen in Beijing. To think of the nearest Lishuiqiao Railway Station, you must walk for 15 minutes to the nearest bus stop before you sit back. Three stops to reach the bus.

Some citizens also stated that problems such as urban planning, road construction, and traffic control are also reasons why traffic congestion cannot be ignored. However, these problems have not been improved in many “blockings” and the collection of congestion fees cannot solve these problems.

In fact, many urban roads and transport infrastructures in our country are weak, and the apparent lag in the construction of public transportation has become an important bottleneck restricting the smooth flow of roads. Second, vehicle violations, indifferent awareness of non-motorized drivers and pedestrian traffic safety, and disorderly driving are important reasons for traffic congestion.