Shanghai Studies Traffic Congestion Charge to Control Pollution

Shanghai, which inaugurated a free trade zone last month and is targeting to become a global financial center, is studying whether to impose a traffic congestion charge as part of a broader plan to fight pollution.

A congestion charge is one of the measures being considered as part of a white paper on transportation, Gao Yiyi, an official with the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority, said today at a joint departmental briefing. The city also pledged to cut levels of PM2.5 -- the most damaging particulate matter -- by 20 percent by 2017 from last year’s levels, according to the environmental protection bureau.