A parking lot in Beijing. (File photo)
(ECNS) -- Beijing plans to further increase control over car purchasing in the capital city, notorious for traffic jams, by introducing a "parking space before purchase" policy.
Zhang Yankun, the vice mayor of Beijing, said the city aims to implement a regional law regarding car parking to ease traffic congestion.
It will require residents to have first secured a parking space before purchasing a vehicle.
Beijing will start researching and assessing the suggested law this year and will try to introduce it during 2016.
The law will also make requirements regarding land supply for parking lots, parking fees, and investment.
Beijing already has the nation's strictest car purchasing and use policies. Under a lottery-style quota system, residents have to compete for limited license plate numbers before buying a vehicle. Depending on the final digit of their license plate, cars are blocked from Beijing's streets one weekday each week, with two numbers banned each day. On smoggy days or for important events such as last year's APEC meeting, an alternate-day driving system for odd and even-numbered license plates is adopted.
