VICE Mayor Zhang Siping said he understood the traffic congestion in the city was causing inconvenience to residents and promised to improve traffic conditions, in an interview with reporters Friday.

Acknowledging public dissatisfaction over the annoying congestion, Zhang, whose portfolio includes traffic, said Shenzhen is taking more measures to address the issue, even as the traffic in the city faces increasing pressure, following the registration of the 1 millionth vehicle.

New fee mulled

If the city does nothing to control the growing number of cars, Shenzhen may see the number of vehicles reach 2 million in five or 10 years, Zhang said.

While the city has no intention of auctioning license plates like Shanghai to make it more expensive to own a car, the vice mayor said Shenzhen is considering the imposition of a fee on cars entering the city center at rush hour.

He said London and Singapore have already imposed such a fee to divert traffic from the city center during rush hour in the morning and evening.

But he did not disclose a timetable, saying it needs a lot of research, investigation and debates. “The city needs to address the prospect of the government paying the fee for the large number of cars owned by the government and State firms, which would be unfair to private car owners,” he said.

More Metro lines

“In a city with 10 million residents like Shenzhen, the Metro is now the weakest link in the city’s traffic structures,” Zhang said.

Most Metro projects were delayed by about six months last year due to a host of problems including land acquisition and confusion over responsibilities among some government departments.

“At the beginning of the year, the municipal government has finalized the timetable for five new Metro lines and made construction companies and officials concerned accountable for any delay,” he said.

The city has promised to build 155km of Metro lines before the 26th Universiade in 2011. Zhang assured the press that the target can be achieved in time. “When the Universiade is held in four years, Shenzhen will have Metro lines totaling 176km. The Metro network will provide sufficient traffic for the Universiade.”

Bus fares

The vice mayor said it’s necessary to lower bus fares “appropriately” in response to calls by the city’s lawmakers and advisers to cut fares.

But if the fare reduction is too big, bus companies will suffer losses and as a result, the service could decline, he said.

Government subsidies to public transport firms should also not exceed the government’s financial means.

Meilin renovation

Zhang said he was monitoring the progress of projects to alleviate the serious traffic jams in the Meilin Checkpoint area every day. Three government departments issued public apologies in January for failing to improve traffic in the area.

Traffic congestion began to occur near the checkpoint in 2003, and deteriorated last year. On “black Mondays” in March last year, tens of thousands of residents were stranded north of the checkpoint for hours because of a traffic standstill, leading to a public uproar.

Some renovation projects have already started ahead of schedule, Zhang said. “The projects we promised in order to solve the problem are being carried out one by one. There will be no empty talk!”

(Lin Min)