Shenzhen officials are planning to drastically increase parking fees in the city, in an effort to relieve traffic congestion by increasing costs for drivers.
The plan soon will be released and opened for public opinion, city transportation commission leader Huang Min said Tuesday. He didn’t elaborate or provide details.
Huang said the average speeds of vehicles during Shenzhen’s rush hours were 29.5 kilometers per hour in the morning and 28.2 kilometers per hour in the evening, between January and July. The averages are slightly faster than those in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
“We have 24 measures to relieve congestion, including development of public transportation, construction of more parking facilities and drastic increases of parking fees,” Huang said.
Huang said the city won’t consider restricting license plate registrations, as Guangzhou and Shanghai do, to curb the flood of vehicles on city streets. The number of vehicles registered in Shenzhen reached 2 million in February.
Shenzhen traffic police chief Liu Fengjun said Shenzhen hasn’t considered license plate restrictions, but some local car dealers have falsely spread rumors of such restrictions to promote sales.
Four managers of three car dealerships have been detained for five days each for spreading such rumors, Shenzhen police said yesterday.
Police also ordered the dealerships to apologize to customers for spreading the rumors through text messages.
Police found that some dealerships had spread rumors to potential customers Aug. 28, saying Shenzhen would restrict license plates starting Saturday, Sept. 1. Some dealerships even extended their service hours and canceled promotions to create a false phenomenon of rushed buying and thereby cheat customers.
The deceptive methods increased transactions late last month, leading up to Saturday. One dealership sold 16 cars Friday, 13 more than Aug. 29. Another sold 26 cars Friday, 20 more than Aug. 30.
- by szdaily.sznews.com
