Beijing's traffic is notorious.
北京的交通情况可谓是臭名远扬。
With millions of vehicles filling the city's roads on a daily basis, it's not uncommon for drivers during peak hours to find themselves measuring their travelling distance in meters, rather than kilometers.
随着每天市内街道上都会被数以百万计的机动车占据，每逢高峰时段，司机们都会发现自己开车向前行进的距离并不是按千米计算，而是按米计算。
To try to help ease this, municipal authorities are now actively discussing the idea of a congestion tax. The proposal would hit drivers with a yet-unspecified surcharge to travel into Beijing's high-traffic areas.
为缓解该情况，政府部门就最新征收交通拥堵税的提议展开了积极讨论。这项提议将意味着驾驶司机们将会在进入北京繁忙地段之后要多交一份尚未正式规定的附加费用。
It's a concept which - for most people who work in Beijing's busy downtown area - isn't sitting well with daily commuters.
该提议对于那些平日在北京市中心工作的通勤者来说，无疑会招致他们的诸多不满。

"To collect congestion fees may be effective to a certain degree. But you can't sort out Beijing's traffic problems by such short-term measures. It may be that you have to change the way the nation's capital works."
“征收交通拥堵税或许在一定程度上会起到相应作用，但是你不能通过这种短期措施来解决北京的交通问题。真正需要做的是从根本上改变这个城市的运作方式。”
The municipal government is in the process of moving most of its offices into the suburbs, which should ease traffic in central Beijing, where most municipal government offices are currently located. A number of other steps have also been taken, including increasing parking fees and implementing restrictions on when people can drive, based on their license plate number.
北京市政府一直致力于将大多数办公地点转移到郊区地区，以便缓解市中心地带的交通拥堵问题。很多市政办公室最近都在郊区落户了。事实上，政府也在着手实行一系列其他措施，包括提高停车费用、按照车牌号码限行司机开车日期等等。
Ma Zhong, professor of Environmental Studies at Renmin University, says while well-intentioned, the license-plate restrictions have had the opposite effect. "Those policies may have intended to control the number of vehicles. But they ended up just doing the opposite, because as a result of the controls, there was a further stimulation of vehicle purchases."
中国人民大学环境研究学院马忠教授表示，尽管尾号限行这一措施出发点是好的，但却收到了反面效果。“这些政策旨在控制机动车的出行数量，但是却起到了反面作用。因为该项控制政策反而促进了汽车购买数量的大大增加。”
As such, if people can afford a 2nd vehicle to get around license plate restrictions, its left many questioning whether a congestion tax will be enough to dissuade drivers.
如果人们有能力负担两辆机动车的费用，这样便打破了尾号限行的限制。照此情况来看，征收交通拥堵税是否真正能够达到劝阻驾驶司机的目的，还有待考量。
Zheng Wentao, associate professor of Earth and Space Sciences with Peking University, says he believes the core issue in eliminating traffic congestion in Beijing is to fix the layout of the roads. "The problem of traffic jams are best resolved if the roads themselves are well designed. It's not difficult to figure out where the problem areas are and what are the main factors behind the traffic jams."
北京大学地球与空间科学学院的副教授郑文涛表示，他认为真正能够解决北京交通拥堵的关键在于重新整改北京的道路布局。“只有道路布局设计地合理，交通问题才能迎刃而解。事实上，找出布局最有问题的区域以及交通拥堵背后的原因并不是那么困难。”
However, that too becomes problematic, as many of the core areas in central Beijing can't be torn up or redrawn, given the existing development, as well as the many historical sites which can't be moved.
然而，考虑到现有发展情况，同时北京许多历史遗迹也不能转移地点，北京许多核心区域都不能被拆除或重建，以上的解决措施若是实施起来也困难重重。