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Car lottery calamity

2014-07-31 09:11 Global Times Web Editor: Li Yan
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New regulations on temporary permit holders put thousands under strain

Once every 12 days, Wei Guohua makes a pilgrimage from his home in Changping district to a checkpoint 150 kilometers away in Xiji. The purpose of this pilgrimage is to obtain a temporary registration permit for his car, which will allow him to drive in Beijing for another 12 days. Then he will have to make the journey again, rinse and repeat, ad nauseum.

"Sometimes, we deliberately arrive after midnight, to give us an 'extra' day on the permit," said Wei, who works in the microelectronics industry.

Wei sometimes drives himself, and sometimes carpools with others who find themselves in the same situation to save a little money. In total, the journey takes around three hours, not including filling out forms and queuing in line. No matter how late it is when Wei finally arrives home, he will have to get up early the next morning to drive his 8-year-old daughter to school.

Wei is just one among thousands of Beijing residents in the same situation. Without a permanent registration plate permitting them to drive their cars in Beijing, they must make a pilgrimage every 12 days.

A total lottery

In order to deal with the burgeoning traffic congestion problem in Beijing, the municipal government adopted a quota system three years ago to restrict the rampant growth of new car owners.

The quota system limits the number of Beijing license plates that can be issued each month. Without a registered Beijing license plate number, one cannot drive their car in Beijing.

Those who are travelling to Beijing, but have a license plate number from any of China's other municipalities, must apply for a temporary registration permit.

Because the number of people who wish to obtain a permanent Beijing license plate far exceeds the number of license plates that can be issued under the quota, a lottery system was implemented to randomly determine who would be granted a license plate, and who would miss out.

According to a Beijing Youth Daily report, 2.8 million people entered the license plate lottery this July, each with just a meager 0.7 percent chance of actually getting one.

Until recently, those who missed out on "winning" a plate in the lottery were able to exploit a loophole in the temporary registration permit regulations.

Car owners could obtain an out-of-town license plate number, and then apply for a "long-term" registration permit that would allow them to drive their car in Beijing for six months. When it expired, they could apply for another six-month permit. But in April of this year, the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau did away with "long-term" registration permits. Now, the longest continuous period one can hold a temporary registration permit for is just 12 days.

It is estimated that at any one moment in Beijing, there are between 300,000 and 500,000 cars driving with temporary registration permits.

Caught in traffic

Wei has been living in Beijing for 14 years, and holds a Beijing hukou (household registration), which is one of the prerequisites for entering the license plate lottery. He has entered the lottery every month since 2011, but has had no luck thus far.

By August 2012, Wei felt as if he could not wait any longer, and bought a car despite not having a Beijing license plate number.

Wei was well aware of the restrictions imposed on those driving on an out-of-town registration number in Beijing: he would not be allowed to drive within the Fifth Ring Road during weekday rush hours (7 am to 9 am, and 5 pm to 8 pm), and he would have to renew his temporary permit every six months.

Under the new regulations, the rush hour no-go zone has been extended to the Sixth Ring Road.

The regulations are strictly enforced through a network of traffic cameras around the city. Those caught will be required to pay a 100-yuan ($16) fine, as well as having three points deducted from their driver's license. If vehicle owner has all 12 points deducted, they will be disqualified from driving, and their driver's license revoked.

The restrictions have inevitably lead to problems for Wei.

"Sometimes, in emergencies, you have to drive even if you'll be punished," said Wei.

On one occasion, Wei's wife had taken their daughter to a hospital in downtown Beijing. Because of traffic delays, mother and daughter were caught inside the Fifth Ring Road during the evening rush hour.

"She called me on the highway, and asked me whether they should stop and wait until after 8 pm," said Wei. "But how could she, given that she was with a child who had not eaten? So I just told her to take a detour through the smaller roads, where there are fewer traffic cameras."

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