Zhang Yang

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    SHENZHEN traffic police will start fining violators for using the country’s first carpool lane on Binhe-Binhai Boulevard, a freeway connecting the city’s Nanshan and Futian districts, next month.

    Starting Aug. 8, drivers who misuse the high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lane, reserved during rush hour for vehicles carrying at least one passenger, will be fined 300 yuan (US$48), police said in a statement yesterday.

    Apart from the ticket, a violation will be recorded on the driver’s credit record, which will affect areas such as employment and obtaining a loan, according to the police.

    During the one-week grace period, ending Aug. 8, violators will only be given verbal warnings, the statement said.

    Trial operations on the lane, which is China’s first HOV lane, started April 18.

    Small vehicles with no more than nine seats must carry at least two occupants, including the driver, in order to drive in the lane from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., and from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on workdays.

    High-definition surveillance cameras and traffic police officers on patrol will monitor vehicles using the HOV lane. Although each vehicle must carry at least two people to use the lane, passengers don’t necessarily have to sit in the front seat as was previously required, according to the police.

    Statistics from the traffic police show that the number of vehicles using the HOV lane without passengers has declined by 11 percent since April 18, while the number of vehicles carrying at least two people on the HOV lane has climbed by 17 percent. Meanwhile, the number of vehicles carrying at least two people on Binhai Boulevard has grown by 11 percent.

    Before the lane was put into use, Binhai Boulevard saw around 7,000 cars per hour during peak hours, and three out of every four cars only carried the driver.

    The traffic police road management department head, Wang Le, said over 75 percent of vehicles using the HOV lane carried passengers in the past months, with 82 percent of passengers sitting in the front seats. 

    He said the HOV lane could enable the same number of vehicles to carry an additional 870 people per hour.

    Wang said, the purpose of introducing HOV lanes is to reduce the rate of no-passenger vehicles on roads, and it seems that people are changing their car-using habits as a result.

    Most vehicles obeyed the rules for using the HOV lane on Binhai Boulevard from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. yesterday. Traffic police officers were divided into two groups to check vehicles in the lane. Some drivers who violated the rules were ordered to pull over and given verbal warnings.

    A driver surnamed Ke said he drove in the HOV lane because he was in a hurry. “I really support the use of HOV lanes because it is a good idea and it has no negative influence on our life,” Ke said. Although, he felt it might be hard for the police to enforce the rule.

    Since HOV lanes were first introduced in the United States in the late 1960s, many countries, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have adopted them, but they are still rare in China.

    Shenzhen accommodates more than 3 million vehicles. Vehicles are now responsible for 70 percent of the city’s air pollution, according to the city government.