Chinese drivers find creative detours around traffic restrictions
Hangers-on block licence plates to bypass time limitations
Some drivers in China have resorted to hiring people to cling to their vehicles and cover the licence plate numbers, so as to avoid traffic fines.
Police in Liujiang county, Guangxi province, said they had dealt with 15 cases this year of drivers obscuring their licence plates in different ways, the Nanguo Today News reported. Some drivers had paid people to cling to the front of the vehicles to cover the plate number.
A section of road that connects the No 322 national road with Liuzhou and nearby counties is used by many freight vehicles. To ease traffic jams, the authorities adopted number-based traffic restrictions last year, in which vehicles can only use the road at specific times of the day, according to their licence plates.
Some drivers have come up with ingenious ways to obscure their licence plates, including using paper, CD discs or even remote controls to change the plate.
Local police said they would tighten a crackdown on drivers seeking to obscure their licence plates.