To open up 2011 please find here the first in a planned new series of occasional China Streets Dispatches, to be taken from multiple sources with the goal of giving wider circulation within China and beyond to articles, emails and other outstanding contributions covering f
rom different perspectives what the editors of C/S believe to be important matters concerning China’s streets and well-being which are worthy of both wider circulation and preservation. This first dispatch is from china.org.cn – http://www.china.org.cn/china/2010-12/23/content_21604345.htm
The Beijing municipal government said Thursday it will limit 2011 issuance of new car license plates to 240,000 and implement harsh traffic control measures to ease the city’s traffic congestion. Many Chinese netizens called this the “toughest congestion-tackling measure in history”. From Friday, Beijing car buyers will have to draw lots before obtaining a car license plate, said Zhou Zhengyu, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing municipal government.
NETWORK DISPATCHES 
This measure is inherently unjust, as it will ‘grandfather’ those who already have plates/insurance.
The impact on car sales shows how drastic the measure is, with a downturn of about 70%.
It would be a good time for the government to consider making _all_ new permissions to be for shared cars, so that there are no winners and losers, only a less free access to a car than was possible before.
And then it should announce that those who already have permission for a personal car would have a date in the future to switch to carsharing, and give up their plate/insurance permission.
It was not clear what would happen to those who now have permission, but are moving out of the city: would they be able to sell their permission on the open market, as taxi licenses in much of the world are sold?
China can take leadership in apportioning access to match a city’s capacity.
Running a lottery with many early adopters exempted is not the way to do it.
Chris Bradshaw
Ottawa, Canada
The problem here though is that Beijing’s traffic is already awful. The traffic has only been made worse in the past few years as China has pushed domestic car sales to make up for a sagging international market. Not sure that even these strict measures are going to make much of a difference if real alternatives are not provided.
http://seeingredinchina.wordpress.com/