China Slowly Starts to Tame Its Traffic

During rush hour on Beijing’s most congested highways and streets, bicycles and vegetable carts rattling down sidewalks move faster than auto traffic, whether you’re riding in an official’s shiny new Audi or a Volkswagen taxi. But there’s actually some good news about China’s struggle to manage its traffic. The swift rise in car ownership in Beijing has slowed, thanks to a license plate lottery—a Beijinger can drive a car only if he has a license plate to put on it. More important for China’s future, the less developed tier-2 cities are learning from Beijing’s mistakes.

The lottery eased congestion measurably in 2011, the year it started, says Anthony Liu, an economist at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing, who published an examination of the policy last year in the journal Energy Policy. “The lottery slows down the growth in car [ownership], while allowing other policies to take hold, such as expanding public transportation systems,” says Liu. Beijing has added three lines to its subway and expanded five since 2011. An additional six lines are being planned. The system is expected to have 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of track by 2020, up from 527 kilometers now. The lottery now allots 130,000 plates per year, down from 240,000 when it first started.