Guangdong officials ponder law to cut traffic in cities

Authorities in Guangdong are considering legislation to restrict the number of vehicles on the province's crowded city streets.

The police bureau said a rapid increase in vehicles was causing a swathe of problems, such as air pollution, congestion and accidents, the government-run Nanfang Daily reported. The report said the province's infrastructure was now close to capacity and Guangdong and Shenzhen simply could not cope with any more vehicles.

Official statistics show that the number of vehicles registered in Guangdong had reached 17.3 million by July this year and both of its two main cities, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, had 1.2 million vehicles on the road each day. That number will keep increasing by at least 10 per cent a year, much higher than the growth in road capacity.

Rapid growth in vehicles is a major headache for urban planners. While cities including Beijing have enacted measures to restrict drivers - for example by keeping private cars off the streets for one day a week - legislation would mark a more concrete approach.

The report did not speculate on what type of restrictions Guangdong's police and traffic authorities were considering. So far neither Guangzhou nor Shenzhen has implemented any kind of measure restricting vehicles.

Earlier this year, several provincial political advisers launched detailed proposals to limit vehicles on the streets but they received little government feedback.