Beijing will face 3m vehicles traffic pressure

In the short span of 18 days from the beginning of New Year, vehicles in Beijing has increased 22,079, with the largest increase of more than 2,400 units a day. At present, the total amount of motor vehicles in Beijing has reached 2.88 million. Beijing's transportation department expects that in the first half of this year, the total number of motor vehicles will exceed 3 million, and Beijing will be under greater pressure of the traffic situation. Song Jianguo, director of Beijing Traffic Control Department, reckoned that it will reach 3.3 million when the Olympic Games come.

For the past, it reached 2 million vehicles in Beijing in 1997, and topped 2 million in August 2003. "With the rapid growth of motor vehicles, now, the transportation system is very fragile, risks of urban traffic network are getting higher and higher. Once some big accidents happened, roads may be blocked instant. Zhai Shuanghe, deputy director of Beijing Traffic Control Department said not optimistically.