TRAFFIC congestion in Shenzhen has worsened since the beginning of May as life and work return to normal.

A monitoring result of www.amap.com “over 50 major Chinese cities between May 1-11” showed the congestion index of Shenzhen had increased by 10 percent over the same period of last year.

On May 11, Shenzhen recorded severe congestion in the morning rush hour, with 2.83 million vehicles on the roads. On May 12, the number slightly dropped to 2.68 million. The congestion cost each driver an additional 110 yuan (US$15) on average in May, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

The increase of congestion is partially caused by non-locally registered vehicles that are currently not prohibited during rush hours on working days.

Police statistics showed that there are about 250,000 such vehicles on Shenzhen roads.

The city has had the ban of such vehicles lifted since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

At a news conference Wednesday, Feng Xinyi, deputy chief of the city’s traffic police bureau, said that Shenzhen for the time being will not resume the ban of non-local vehicles during rush hours, considering the need for work resumption and epidemic prevention.

“If the ban is resumed, the drivers and passengers of the non-local vehicles will take public transportation in the city and increase the density of people on Metro trains and buses as well as at the stations,” said Feng.

“It would not be good for COVID-19 prevention and control,” Feng added.

To encourage the public to report violations, Shenzhen police gave out 1.27-million-yuan rewards to whistleblowers who reported traffic violations between August 2019 and February 2020.

Over this period, police received 358,938 reports and 61,820, or 17.22 percent of them, had been verified. The rewards were given out through WeChat accounts and 23,000 people received the rewards.

Among the violations, illegal parking took about 45.1 percent. Other major violations included not using an indicator while changing lanes, 21 percent, and illegally using bus lanes, 17 percent.

(Han Ximin)