Dec 11, 2012
By Pang Lei

An article that appeared in the Beijing News (新京報) last week reported that Beijing traffic police would soon start cracking down on pedestrians and cyclists who ran red lights.

It looks like the city's fluro-vested traffic cops have now sprung into action.

This afternoon's Legal Evening News (法制晚報) carries a short report noting that over a 30 minute period this morning, 19 pedestrians were handed 10 yuan fines for crossing an intersection just to the north of Beijing's Olympic Stadium when the light was red.

The Legal Evening News article says the campaign to play closer attention to whether pedestrians are following the road rules will last until next March.

According to official statistics quoted in the Beijing News article, there was more than 210,000 traffic accidents in China last year resulting in more than 60,000 fatalities.

Across the country from January to October this year, there were close to 88,000 accidents that resulted in injury or death that were caused by road users not obeying the road rules, resulting in over 26,000 fatalities. Of this figure, 262 deaths were caused by pedestrians not obeying the road rules.

The article also quotes figures saying that from January to October this year, nationwide there were 4,200 accidents resulting in injury or death that were caused by the running of red lights (presumably this figures includes both vehicles and pedestrians), resulting in 798 deaths.

I'd like to ask the Beijing traffic police when they plan to start fining drivers who fail to stop at a zebra crossings or give way to pedestrians when turning right at a red light. I'm also curious as to how much of a deterrent a fine of 10 yuan is.

Links and Sources
The Beijing News: 北京將嚴管非機動車闖紅燈
Legal Evening News: 中國式過馬路挨罰