Reducing energy consumption and pollution in the urban transportation sector: A review of policies and regulations in Beijing

With the rapid growth of urbanisation and associated vehicle numbers in China, urban transportation has become responsible for a large increase in the country’s energy consumption and, consequently, its air pollution levels. Beijing has been making significant efforts to reduce transportation sector energy consumption and pollution. However, owing to the existence of a large number of private cars, the implementation of effective energy consumption and emission reduction measures has been difficult to achieve. This paper reviews the policies and regulations that have so far been developed to tackle Beijing’s transportation sector issues. Perspective and analysis are given on the specific policies and regulations that have been employed, focusing on the overarching regulation mechanism, public transportation infrastructure, vehicle technology-related measures, vehicle activity-related measures and eco-driving -related measures, relevant experiences and lessons are summarised. A key finding concludes that the implementation of driving restriction policy can restrain pollutants emissions significantly, it shows energy consumption and emission reduction should not only be applied to public transportation, but the effective control of emissions from private cars should also attract more attention. To better control energy consumption of urban transport, various measures and solutions are proposed and discussed, including the further popularizing of eco-driving and the widespread application of e-mobility. Specific proposals for developing urban transportation policy are also discussed.