Beijing plans to issue a congestion charging management policy that Shanghai will not collect temporarily

Recently, the "Beijing 12th Five-Year Plan period traffic development and construction plan" was formally released. According to the plan, Beijing will issue a congestion charging management policy and supporting measures, and will focus on the construction of a traffic congestion charging management system and a congestion charging monitoring and evaluation system. In response, many citizens asked whether Shanghai, which also faces urban traffic congestion problems, will introduce relevant measures to increase travel costs. Sun Jianping, director of the Shanghai Municipal Transport, Port and Port Authority, said yesterday that Shanghai does not consider charging traffic congestion fees for the time being.

At the end of 2010, when Beijing introduced the 28-point blockade, it proposed to study and formulate key congested road sections or regional traffic congestion charging programs and implement them at the right time so as to arouse widespread concern in the society. In May this year, the person in charge of the Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission once said that practice has shown that economic measures have a clear role in relieving traffic congestion. From the experience of major cities in the world, measures such as collecting congestion fees in some regions and collecting sewage charges in combination with air pollution control are taken. It is worth learning from Beijing.

It is understood that the "Planning" proposes that in order to improve regulations, standards, and systems, a set of supporting laws and regulations that promote the sustainable development of traffic and alleviate traffic congestion will be issued to ensure the smooth development of congestion charging management. In addition, it will also focus on the construction of a congestion monitoring and evaluation system and a traffic congestion charging management system. This means that Beijing is pursuing a roadblock to collect traffic congestion fees.

Shanghai is also facing enormous traffic pressure. As of the first half of this year, the number of motor vehicles registered in Shanghai was 2.573 million, an increase of 57,000 from the end of last year; the total number of private cars has reached 1.291 million (including the Shanghai C license). It increased by 102,000 vehicles compared to the end of last year. This does not include more than 560,000 non-local license cars that have been operating in Shanghai for many years. At the end of this year, the number of private cars in Shanghai can reach 1.4 million.

Experts have suggested that orderly control of motor vehicle growth and increase of car use costs are effective measures to relieve congestion. Does this mean that Shanghai will also charge traffic congestion fees?

During this year's Shanghai “two sessions” and in May’s livelihood interviews, Sun Jianping, director of the Shanghai Port Transportation Bureau, repeatedly stressed that “when public transportation is convenient, safe, and affordable, there is no problem with the collection of congestion fees. Sun Jianping said that at present, Shanghai is actively promoting the "three networks integration" of subways, buses and community buses to improve and enrich the urban public transportation system.

Then, if Beijing plans to implement a traffic congestion fee, will Shanghai's policy be loosened? “At present, the caliber of Shanghai remains unchanged.” Sun Jianping said that Shanghai has done a long time of research. The current focus of its work is on developing public transport and strengthening traffic management, and Shanghai has already implemented a motor vehicle license auction system, if it imposes traffic again. The "congestion fee" should be very careful. "Shanghai does not consider temporarily collecting traffic congestion fees."