section_path: Transportation/Roads and expressways
section_name: Roads and expressways
paragraph_text: Roads and expressways
  
  Beijing is connected by road links to all parts of China as part of the National Trunk Road Network. Many expressways of China serve Beijing, as do 15 China National Highways. Beijing's urban transport is dependent upon the ring roads that concentrically surround the city, with the Forbidden City area marked as the geographical center for the ring roads. The ring roads appear more rectangular than ring-shaped. There is no official "1st Ring Road". The 2nd Ring Road is located in the inner city. Ring roads tend to resemble expressways progressively as they extend outwards, with the 5th and 6th Ring Roads being full-standard national expressways, linked to other roads only by interchanges. Expressways to other regions of China are generally accessible from the 3rd Ring Road outward. A final outer orbital, the Capital Area Loop Expressway (G95), was fully opened in 2018 and will extend into neighboring Tianjin and Hebei.
  
  Within the urban core, city streets generally follow the checkerboard pattern of the ancient capital. Many of Beijing's boulevards and streets with "inner" and "outer" are still named in relation to gates in the city wall, though most gates no longer stand. Traffic jams are a major concern. Even outside of rush hour, several roads still remain clogged with traffic.
  
  Beijing's urban design layout further exacerbates transportation problems. The authorities have introduced several bus lanes, which only public buses can use during rush hour. In the beginning of 2010, Beijing had 4 million registered automobiles. By the end of 2010, the government forecast 5 million. In 2010, new car registrations in Beijing averaged 15,500 per week.
  
  Towards the end of 2010, the city government announced a series of drastic measures to tackle traffic jams, including limiting the number of new license plates issued to passenger cars to 20,000 a month and barring cars with non-Beijing plates from entering areas within the Fifth Ring Road during rush hour. More restrictive measures are also reserved during major events or heavily polluted weather.
  
  To obtain a valid license plate, Beijing drivers must be selected in a lottery. As part of government policy support for the use of electric vehicles, Beijing drivers with fully electric cars have a much greater chance of being selected for a license plate. Additionally, fully electric vehicles are exempt from restrictions on which day of the week a driver may drive their vehicle.
  
  Road signs began to be standardized with both Chinese and English names displayed, with location names using pinyin, in 2008.