By Chen Weihua (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-03 10:28

Cities like Shanghai and Beijing must show stronger resolve to curb the number of cars on the road before their traffic jams and air quality deteriorate further.

For Shanghai, it will be an especially tough battle considering the city's 13-year-old car license auction system has often been questioned, protested and even called "illegal" by relevant authorities.

The city has not backed down. Municipal government spokeswoman Jiao Yang has said the city has so far no plans to abolish the auction system. Other government officials have also cited the system as an effective way to prevent local traffic from being paralyzed by excessive cars.

Considering Shanghai is the only Chinese city to practice such an auction system, the pressure must be very high.

Fortunately Shanghai received a major shot in the arm recently when former UN Under Secretary General Klaus Toepfer, once head of the UN Environment Program, praised the city's license plate auction system as "an effective management measure" at a recent meeting in Shanghai.

Those words from someone with such an international stature are a huge and timely encouragement for those who have supported the system throughout the years.

For many Shanghainese, the need to limit the number of cars on the road is simply out of necessity. It has become more so every year.

Those who want to call off the auction system are simply ignoring the dire reality in Shanghai or are motivated by a special business interest.

While traffic jams used to occur only on weekdays and during rush hour, they now occur on weekends as well. "Rush hour" has turned into several "rush hours".

These developments have taken place in just a few years, all while the auction system was still in place. Each month, only about 5,000 to 7,000 license plates are auctioned, with prices hitting a record 50,000 yuan (US$6600) last month.

Traffic congestion has already become nightmarish in Shanghai. People - both those driving cars and those taking buses - are moving slower as more cars hit local streets.

Car owners, who pretend to be innocent in this issue, should feel responsible for contributing to this traffic mess - a mess that constitutes an infringement on other people's rights to smooth traffic.

Air pollution is equally disastrous. If you walk in any part of the city center, you smell car exhaust.

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