Guangzhou aims to tackle the city’s worsening traffic problem by introducing a new measure restricting certain vehicles from the road. (Shenzhen, are you listening?)

Under the new rules, vehicles registered outside of Guangzhou proper will be restricted from certain roads, and the downtown core, during certain times of the day. The speculation is rush hour traffic will be limited, for example. But as Guangzhou Daily reports, the times and locations for the restrictions haven’t been decided yet.

The new restrictions will throw a wrench into many people’s morning commute. As everybody knows, the PRD is a vast urbanized area, and not everybody who works in Guangzhou lives in Guangzhou. There are thousands of people who live in nearby Foshan, for instance, and make the daily commute.  One person the paper talked to, Mr. Guo, said he may have to buy a car in Guangzhou and register it there if he wants to continue driving to work. Otherwise he’ll have to take the bus and transfer to the metro, meaning waking up quite a bit earlier each morning.

On the bright side, though, the moves show the government is trying to unclog the city’s main arteries.  We’ll see if this is effective.