Liu Xiaoming of the Beijing government’s transportation committee said Tuesday the city will charge higher parking fees and build more roads to cope with cars that are clogging Beijing streets and spewing pollution.
Li said the number of vehicles on Beijing roads soared by nearly one thousand a day last year totalling nearly 2.6 million, but a program to widen roads, build new highways and provide more public transport would help alleviate congestion or keep it from getting worse, ahead of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
The city slipped to fifteenth place from fourth in a recent independent annual survey ranking China’s most liveable cities, partly due to traffic and pollution.
