Beijing registered a record 22,079 new motor vehicles in the first 18 days of the year, as city planners brace for the number of cars, trucks and buses to top three million by May.

"We issued more than 2,400 license plates in a single day," said a spokesman with Beijing Municipal Traffic Management Bureau. He attributed the sharp rise in the number of registered new motor vehicles to a buying spree that usually occurs before Spring Festival, which falls on February 18.

There are 2.88 million motor vehicles in Beijing, including 2.06 million private vehicles. More than 4.24 million people have a driver's license.

Officials estimate the number of motor vehicles will top 3.3 million by the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

Chinese experts say Beijing has fewer cars than London, Tokyo, Paris and Bangkok, but that Beijing's drivers use their cars more frequently.

"Private car owners in the capital use their cars four times more frequently than private car owners in Tokyo," an expert said, blaming the high use of private cars for road congestion and serious air pollution in Beijing.

Zhai Shuanghe, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Traffic Management Bureau, says "increasing the length of roads can never catch up with the growth in the number of motor vehicles."

Zhai said traffic jams are hampering the city's ability to respond to accidents in its downtown.

A report on quality of life in Chinese cities in 2006, published by the Beijing International Institute for Urban Development last September, says traffic in Beijing ranks worst among 287 Chinese cities.

Mayor Wang Qishan is determined to change this by taking a range of measures to encourage more people to use public buses, including slashing public bus travel fares beginning from January 1.

The municipal government has earmarked 4.98 billion yuan (US$622 million) for development of public transport this year, up 1.31 billion yuan from last year.