Zhang jianfeng, a 25-year-old computer engineer working for a Beijing-based Internet company, has been warned by his boss that he will be fired if he is late for work again.

　　"But the boss doesn't know how hard it is for us to go to work by bus every morning," complains Zhang.

　　"There are so many cars, especially private autos on the roads, the bus on many occasions only moves forward inch by inch."

　　As of August this year, there were a total of 2 million automobiles registered in Beijing, of which some 800,000 were private cars, said Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Traffic Commission.

　　"Though many new roads have been built, Beijingers are also buying more cars. As a result, traffic congestion is a major headache," said Dr Gong Xiaoyan of the Automa-tion Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

　　Gong, who is now heading a program to develop an "intelligent transportation system" in Beijing, believed that the number of cars should be limited for "the city and its roads cannot expand without limits."

　　According to a report by Zhao Wenzhi, director of the Beijing Municipal Traffic Commission, to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress on September 23, Beijing may raise the rates for license plates of private cars, and also impose a so-called "road congestion fee" on private car owners.

　　Zhao's commission has proposed a 10-point sugges-tion to tackle the city's worse-ning traffic situation, which sources say includes measures to limit the ownership and use of private cars.

　　However, this proposal, once exposed by the local media, has met with opposi-tion from many private car owners, as well as some traffic experts.

　　"It is definitely not the best choice," said Professor Mao Baohua, vice-president of the School of Traffic and Transpor-tation of the Beijing Jiaotong University. "Limiting the ownership of private cars may help relieve the traffic pressure to some extent, but won't be a fundamental solution."

　　China's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005) for National Economic and Social Develop-ment encourages families to buy cars. Many provinces and regions have endorsed car-making as a "pillar industry."

　　"If Beijing really takes measures to limit the number of private cars, it will exert a very negative impact on the auto industry," asserted Zhang Guochu of the Institute of Quantity Economy and Technological Economy.

　　Mao also ridiculed the proposed "road congestion fees" as "an unfeasible and too costly initiative" given China's actual conditions.

　　If toll gates are established on the already congested roads to collect such fees from private cars, the roads will all become "huge parking lots" during rush hours, he added.