ecns [expanded by feedex.net]: Safety fears as car sales rocket

ecns [expanded by feedex.net]

ecns

Safety fears as car sales rocket
http://www.ecns.cn/business/2013/12-02/90854.shtml
Dec 2nd 2013, 02:23

2013-12-02 11:23 Shanghai Daily Web Editor: qindexing


The number of private cars in China has jumped 13 times in 10 years, a symbol of a wealthier population but adding to concerns over road safety and air pollution.


There are now 85.07 million private cars in the country compared to 6 million in 2003, Xinhua news agency said yesterday, citing the Ministry of Public Security's traffic management department.


More than 14 million were added each year in the past two years, the bureau said.


Private cars now account for 82.8 percent of all vehicles in China, with Beijing having the most of any city at 5 million.


Shanghai and six other cities: Tianjin, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Suzhou and Hangzhou, have more than 2 million each.


Back in 2003, China had 60 million motorcycles on the road, comprising 61.4 percent of all vehicles. Current figures are not known, but Xinhua said: "In the past 10 years, people's living standards rose quickly and cars replaced motorcycles to be the major vehicle for Chinese families."


Official figures show that there are currently more than 275 million drivers in the country, 2.6 times the number in 2003.


The number of women drivers has also nearly tripled from 10 years ago to 60 million.


However, the bureau warned of road safety issues even though the number of extremely serious road accidents had declined to 25 last year from a peak of 80 in 1996.


"Some people are lacking in safety awareness, and bad driving habits are common," said Xu Ganlu, head of the traffic management bureau. "The total number of traffic casualties is still large, and the road safety outlook is not positive."


The increasing number of vehicles is also considered a major source of air pollution.


A study by the China Academy of Social Sciences conducted in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province showed that 50 percent of PM2.5 pollutants, the fine particles that cause smog and are particularly hazardous to health, are generated by car emissions and road dust.


Some cities, including Shanghai, are restricting the movement of high-emission vehicles. In Shanghai, they are not allowed inside the Inner Ring Road.


Beijing, long plagued by thick smog and heavy traffic, will slash the capital city's new car sales quotas by almost 40 percent next year as it looks to curb vehicle emissions and hazardous levels of pollution, according to the city government's website.


The change in policy gives greater support to cleaner, new-energy cars.


Over the next four years, Beijing will issue 150,000 new license plates a year, down from the current 240,000. Car buyers must put on plates before they are allowed on the road.


That means Beijing's new passenger vehicle sales during the 2014-2017 period will be capped at 600,000 units, fewer than the city's vehicle sales in 2010.


The government will also allot a higher proportion of license plates to buyers of new-energy vehicles that need less gasoline or use alternative energy.


In October this year, vehicle sales in China had soared more than 20 percent year on year for the second consecutive month to 1.93 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.





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