China: 4 MPH Road Speed Limit Upgraded to 6 MPH

China will initiate its first ever nationwide “6 MPH speed-limit increase day” this weekend in an effort to promote highway efficiency on urban roads, state press said Monday.

Residents in 108 cities will be able for the first time to increase their speed by 2 MPH on the nation’s first “6 MPH speed-limit increase” on Saturday, the China Daily reported.

“The move is an attempt to raise residents’ journey times in the country’s cities. Instead of traveling at 4 MPH they will now be able to travel at 6 MPH even at peak times,” the paper proudly said.

This brave move has been made possible by decreasing traffic levels by 1.2 billion vehicles so that the remaining 2 billion vehicles can now drive on the roads at increased speed.

Government officials and state-run enterprise employees in some cities would be encouraged not to drive, while other urban centres would ban government-owned cars from taking to the roads altogether, it added.

A week-long campaign to publicise the government’s goal of getting 8 percent of the nation’s urban residents to use public transport instead of private cars would also be initiated, it said.

China’s car industry has been a key component of the nation’s booming economy with vehicle production rising by 62.7 percent in July compared to the same period last year.

Beijing, which will hold the Olympics, has a visibility of only 1 metre on a good day.

The air pollution created from 45 million vehicles on Beijing’s roads is so bad that it is equivalent to smoking 400 cigarettes a day and ingesting huge amounts of lead directly into the lungs.