〈Netizen makes plaster car to protest unreasonable fees〉
（会发布中英文对照版本）
Netizens makes car plasters to protest unreasonable passing fee
By Wang Yu
Netizens at the XCar Tianjin community are distributing plaster casts of cars branded with the number “55” and the text, “I can’t say too much about it.” The cars are a protest against the controversial monthly “passing fee” initiated by the Tianjin local government.
Liu Bo, chief officer of the Tianjin Municipal Traffic Management Bureau, uttered the phrase now made famous on the plaster cars during his interview with CCTV’s Focus. The program targets controversial social phenomena and has a lot of influence in the country.
Tianjin took out loans in 1990 to begin constructing its high-quality roads. To pay back the debt, local authorities installed 42 toll gates and caused major traffic jams. On June 1, 2003, the bureau began charging all drivers a monthly 55-yuan “passing fee.” “It’s unfair, I don’t even drive on such roads, why should I pay the debt?” Jinshu Luzhang,*****, said.
Baobao, designer of the plaster car, has been a driver for four years. She made her mark on the topic after proposing her plan on Xcar’s BBS after the CCTV Focus program aired.
“I spent my own money and made three plaster casts the noon after the broadcast. All we drivers hope to do is just make our voices heard by the government. The attitude of the officer (Liu Bo) on that TV program was unacceptable. It’s our obligation to pay for the road construction, but we also have the right to know how much money they have collected during the past few years and where it went,” Baobao said.
According to Tianjin’s policy, drivers must pay a passing fee every year for 25 years starting from. No one knows how the government calculated this figure or how accurate it is, especially with the number of cars on the road increasing yearly.
“Roads are business products since they were built using commercial loans. The users are left to pay the debt and they deserve to know the locations of these roads to choose their paths,” said Bai Xuejie, a professor at the Institute of Transportation Economics of Nankai University.
Tianjin’s problem was exposed after the government stopped collecting tolls on January 1. Similar “passing fees” are charged in major cities like Shanghai and Chongqing. Reforms to the fuel tax mandated a gradual elimination of these fees, but the policy never fixed any plans for the transition period.
On January 14, Wang Shuxing, vice director of the Tianjin Municipal Traffic Management Bureau said at a press conference that the collection of a passing fee is legal and will continue. The total income from passing fees collected in 2003 is 7.2 billion yuan. Wang did not say for which roads this money paid.
“I have friends in other districts who will help me distribute the plasters. They are free for all drivers. I won’t stop doing this until we get a clear explanation,” Baobao said.
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