Beijing Adding 1,466 Cars To Its Roads Every Day - China Has Highest Traffic Death Rate In World

[hatrack]

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's capital has added nearly 1,500 new cars to its notoriously congested roads each day so far this year, state media said on Tuesday, despite a nationwide fall in car sales and efforts to cut traffic. "The city is facing serious traffic pressure and safety risks due to the growing number of automobiles," Song Jianguo, head of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying. Beijing registered 65,970 new vehicles in the first 45 days of the year, or a daily increase of 1,466, Xinhua said.

China has introduced incentives to try to boost domestic demand but official data shows car sales in January fell 7.76 percent from a year earlier as traditionally roaring economic growth slowed.

Beijing has also introduced rules aimed at taking a fifth of private cars off the road each day, according to license plate numbers, to ease congestion and pollution.

China's roads have long been among the most dangerous in the world due to overloaded and speeding trucks and drivers who switch lanes without signaling and often ignore traffic lights. China recorded 5.1 road accident deaths for every 10,000 motor vehicles in 2007, the highest rate in the world, Xinhua reported earlier.

EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE51G0LB20090217?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews

[valerief]

1. Okay, okay, no driving jokes. nt

[YOY]

2. A friend living in Bejing once told me about the obvious indifference to it all.

People get hit on their bikes and nobody bats an eye.

Some of the deaths are painfully stupid...like one where a guy rode his bike on a highway and was pretty much torn apart or another where he saw where a guy was messing with power lines to tap some electricity. Pretty gruesome details. The attitude that there are plenty of people prevails.

[Occam Bandage]

3. I absolutely can believe that they have the highest motor death rate in the world.

I was nearly killed twice there. And I do mean nearly killed. The first time, we were on a winding cliffside road, with no shoulder, solid rock on the left, and a drop-off on the right. The driver (I had paid some guy with a car to take me and my friend to the next town over) was trying to pass a bus as we went around a curve; we were going maybe 80 kph. There was, of course, an oncoming truck hidden behind the rock. When he sees it, having no other realistic options, he guns the engine and slides right in front of the bus (as in, only a foot or two in front of it), cutting it so close that the rear-view mirror got knocked off by the oncoming truck. He seemed mildly upset at having lost the mirror, but otherwise was unrattled.

The second time was less interesting; it was simply a case of a racist douchebag trying to knock me in front of a bus on a street. I was able to stay out of its way. The bus driver did not make the slightest effort to avoid me, not that I would expect him to. Buses are forces of nature there; they do not stop or slow for unlucky pedestrians.

[tinrobot]

4. More cars, more deaths... maybe it will reach equilibrium...