China June car sales up 48.5% on year
July 9, 2009
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Free Parking Comes at a Price
September 2, 2008
UCLA urban planning professor Donald Shoup says we have too many parking spaces in this country, especially the cheap and free kind. He argues that we pay the price for it in many different ways. Shoup’s point is made in a new book, The High Cost of Free Parking.
The Car Explosion
Coming to grips with the parking problem is essential because the rest of the world is poised to repeat America’s mistakes. America adopted the car much faster and to a far greater extent than other nations, and many factors help to explain this phenomenon — abundant land, rapid population growth, low fuel prices, and high incomes, among others. Abundant free parking also contributes to our high demand for cars because it greatly reduces the cost of car ownership. And because we own so many cars, we need lots of land to park them. We can speculate about the amount of land the whole world will need for parking if other nations ever acquire as many cars as Americans owned at the end of the twentieth century.
The first American gasoline car was sold in February 1896. By 2000, Americans owned 771 motor vehicles per 1,000 persons… Apart from dips during the Depression, World War II, and the early 1990s, ownership rose rapidly… In 2000, France had the same vehicle-ownership rate as the U.S. in 1972, Denmark the same as the U.S. in 1961, and China the same as the U.S. in 1912.
China is now the world’s fourth-largest market for new cars (after the U.S., Japan and Germany), but the U.S. still added more than twice as many vehicles during the 1990s (29 million) as China owned in 2000 (13 million). Other nations are, however, gaining on the U.S. Since 1950 the vehicle population has grown more than twice as fast outside the U.S. as inside. And yet, taken together, in 2000 the world outside the U.S. owned only 89 vehicles per 1,000 persons — the U.S. rate in 1920. But just as the U.S. vehicle-ownership rate doubled in the five years after 1920, rapid growth may also occur soon in other countries.
The 6.1 billion people on earth in 2000 owned 735 million vehicles. Imagine what would happen if all the countries on earth ever achieve the same vehicle-ownership rate as the U.S. in 2000: there would be 4.7 billion vehicles even if the U.S. population does not increase. A parking lot big enough to hold 4.7 billion cars would occupy an area about the size of England or Greece. If there are four parking spaces per car (one at home, and three more at other destinations), 4.7 billion cars would require 19 billion parking spaces, which amounts to a parking lot about the size of France or Spain. More cars would also require more land for roads, gas stations, used car dealers, automobile graveyards, and tire dumps.
If the past trends in vehicle ownership continue, the world will have more than 4.7 billion cars well before the end of the twenty-first century. Even if the vehicle population grows by only 2 percent a year, it will increase from 735 million in 2000 to 5 billion in 2100. Can the world supply all the fuel needed to power 5 billion cars? Will humans be able to breathe the fumes coming out of 5 billion exhaust pipes? And where will 5 billion cars park?
These questions are not meant to sound alarmist. A simple projection is often a poor forecast because technology and policy can change. For example, horse-drawn carriages befouled cities a century ago. In New York City in 1900, horses deposited 2.5 million pounds of manure on the streets every day. Projected growth in transportation demand made a publich health disaster seem inevitable, but then the horseless carriage solved that problem. Now, horseless carriages create their own problems, but new solutions will arrive. Improved technology will increase fuel efficiency and reduce pollution emissions, but technology alone is unlikely to solve the parking problem. Regardless of how fuel efficient our cars are or how little pollution they emit, we will always need somewhere to park them, and the average car spends 95 percent of its life parked.
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Provisional Regulations of the State General Administration for Industry and Commerce on Automobile Trading Market Control
January 23, 2008
For the purpose of strengthening supervision and administration of automobile trading activities, protecting legal business, preventing illegal profiteering and assuring that the reform of the system of circulation of goods and materials proceeds smoothly, the following provisions are made.
1. Automobile trading centres (which in these regulations includes marketing outlets) established by departments in charge of goods and materials and automobile industry trading companies set up by the China Automobile Industry Sales Service Corporation may engage in automobile marketing and organise automobile trading activities. When the above-mentioned centres and companies start business, they must be approved and registered by a department administering industry and commerce and obtain a business licence.
2. All automobiles put on the market with State Council approval by departments or organs of a People’s Government of a province, autonomous region or municipality under the direct control of the Central Government and those automobiles sold by those production enterprises producing for the State quota which have exceeded their quota (including those automobiles manufactured by the military which are sold for civilian use) must be traded through an automobile trading centre under a department in charge of goods and materials or through an automobile industry trading company under the China Automobile Industry Sales Service Corporation. Those automobiles produced by factories not producing for the State quota shall also be traded through the above-mentioned centres or companies.
In relation to automobiles subject to a “production co-operation exchange” or a “production adjustment exchange”, the two sides may decide through discussion to put them on the market. It is forbidden to profiteer in the name of co-operative exchange.
3. Automobile trading may take a variety of forms. Production enterprises may themselves establish sales outlets in the market, or may appoint someone on a commission basis, or buy and sell by mail. They may be traded as merchandise on hand and may also be traded as future merchandise. In all cases where they are traded as future merchandise, a contract must be signed by both buyer and seller.
4. As from 1 November 1985, where an automobile is the subject of a transaction in an automobile trading centre under a department in charge of goods and materials or in an automobile industry trading company under the China Automobile Industry Sales Service Corporation, the invoice shall be verified and sealed by a body administering industry and commerce. Without the seal of a body administering industry and commerce, licence plates may not be issued by the public security or traffic supervision authorities, nor shall registration be granted.
5. In the case of all automobiles sold through the automobile trading centres of the departments in charge of goods and materials or through the automobile industry trading companies under the China Automobile Industry Sales Service Corporation, where the State has set a price or a price range, they must be sold in accordance with that price or for a price within that price range. If the State has not set a price or price range, the production enterprises may trade by fixing a price themselves and labelling them with the price or may negotiate a price according to the market.
6. Used vehicles (except those used automobiles imported under the State plan) must be traded in the markets designated by the People’s Governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities under the direct control of the Central Government; in order to complete the formalities of transfer of registration a market trading certificate must be shown. It is forbidden to sell used vehicles which, under the regulations, must be scrapped.
7. In relation to automobile trading markets, departments in charge of goods and materials and automobile industry sales service companies shall provide information and shall offer good service. Industrial enterprises shall improve the quality of their products and sell their products to meet the needs of the market. Administrative bodies in charge of industry and commerce shall strengthen supervision and administration and co-ordinate the economic relations of all parties.
8. In automobile trading, State policies and regulations must be conformed to, taxes must be paid in accordance with the regulations and administration and supervision must be accepted. It is not permitted to operate without a licence; it is not permitted to sell products produced for a plan at a negotiated price; it is not permitted to resell production quotas, sales or purchase contracts, invoices or bills of lading; it is not permitted to pass off second-class items as good. Offenders shall be dealt with by the industry and commerce, tax and other authorities in accordance with the relevant regulations. Where the criminal code is breached, the judicial authorities will, in accordance with the law, investigate and determine criminal liability.
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