Responding to the difficulties faced by people in getting a taxi in Beijing, the city's traffic administration issued a notice on Jan 16 warning cabbies that they would be penalized for not operating during peak traffic hours.

The notice, however, does not address the real cause of the problem, that is, the demand of the market.

To begin with, the government has restricted the number of taxis in Beijing to about 66,000 since the early 1990s, during which the capital's population has almost doubled. So one way of easing the problem is to ease the control on the number of cabs in the city. More cabs will increase the competition among cabbies and make it easier for passengers to get a taxi.