Beijing's traffic bureau announced a project on 23 February to narrow traffic lanes in order to bring more order to the city's driving conditions. Currently, the city's driving lanes average 3.5 meters wide on normal roads, and 3.7 meters on the highways, with some roadways narrowing to 3.2 meters per lane. This is already a reduction from the 3.5-3.7 meter width most roadways measured before 1999. Under current conditions, drivers of small cars often take liberties with the wide Beijing lanes and cause traffic disruptions. Small-engine cars (1.0 L or less), which are gradually seeing restrictions lifted on their use in urban areas, generally measure 1.6 meters in width, while 2.0 L cars are genterally between 1.7 and 1.8 meters wide. This accounts for the majority of cars in general use. A minority of vehicles sold, however, measure up to 2 meters or more in width, including new model Audis and SUVs. These vehicles may see their sales influenced as unskilled drivers become wary of getting stuck in narrow lanes while driving big vehicles, the Beijing Times reports.Link: http://auto.sohu.com/20060302/n242085829.shtml