Every major city in the world is facing traffic problems, with millions of cars crowding the cities. And while some cities manage this issue pretty easy, by introducing taxes, restricting traffic or perfecting the public transport system, it seems that the situation in Beijing is pretty dramatic, because the authorities turned to a lottery system to control the number of newly registered cars in the Chinese capital. Why thy may look drastic, apparently no other solution worked especially considering 850,000 new cars were bought last year, turning the total number of registered cars in Beijing to almost 5 million, with 30,000 units being sold in one week, in mid-December. This also made Beijing authorities ban new car sales on December 24, ban which will be lifted on January 26, the date when the first new cars lottery will take place.

According to authorities, a number of 20,000 units will be allowed per month, with registrations being admitted until the 25th of the month and the lottery taking place the next day. There are already more than 100,000 registrations for the lottery, 53,549 of which applied on the first day, on January 1.

This only applies to new cars, because people whose cars are stolen, destroyed or traded will not have to get inline for the lottery and will be able to buy directly a new car. The estimation for 2011 is that beside the 240,000 cars from the lottery, around 160,000 will be purchased outside the lottery system.

Beijing authorities also took some other measures to contain traffic, such as increased parking fees and ban cars not registered in Beijing from driving in the city at rush hours, measure which is aimed at stopping Beijing drivers from getting around the restriction and registering a car in another city.

[Source: Bloomberg]