Experts said China needs to enhance education, infrastructure and legislation building as more middle-class citizens drove onto roads, boosting sales in what is now the world's biggest market for automobiles.
Statistics shows China has 238 million vehicles and 256 million drivers as of October, 2012, with an average annual increase of more than 16 million vehicles and 20 million drivers during the last five years.
But the evolution of the "bicycle kingdom" toward one of automobiles has not been accompanied by improvements in traffic awareness. "Many Chinese drive cars as if they are riding a bike," said Liu Pan, professor and researcher on road safety at Southeast University.
"China should stress education on new drivers and impose stricter exams to prevent disqualified drivers from hitting the roads," said Zhang Mingsuo, sociology professor at Zhengzhou University.
Penalties on rule-breaking pedestrians and bikers are also required, Zhang said, to discourage their road misbehaviors that are also rising as a major cause of accidents.
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