擁堵費 (yōngdu fèi): Congestion charge

On Thursday, the director of Beijing's Transport Commission, Zhou Zhengyu, said the capital plans to implement specific measures to alleviate congestion during the period of the 13th Five Year Plan (2016-20).

Zhou said next year the authority will start research on piloting a congestion charge in Beijing, along with introducing other new traffic control policies and restrictions on vehicle purchases.

The commission has made an overall plan for alleviating traffic congestion during the period from 2016 to 2020: The authorities will make efforts to transfer the "non-capital functions" based in Beijing, increase the input into constructing road infrastructure and restrict the ownership and use of vehicles through legal, economic, technological and administrative measures, Zhou said.

Traffic experts said that globally many cities, such as London, New York, Tokyo and Singapore, have successfully introduced fees to reduce the number of cars on the streets in central areas, which has helped ease their congestion and air pollution.

But, charging a congestion fee is a huge and complicated task, which not only involves technological difficulties, but also solving many other problems, such as whether, and if so how much, those living in the charging zone should pay. Systematic research is required before the authorities finally decide to implement such a measure, said Zhou.