Traffic violations may hurt credit

Traffic violations like jaywalking might be recorded into people's personal credit records in the future.

Public security authorities will establish a credibility system for traffic safety, and violating rules may affect personal credit, insurance and job permissions, an official with the traffic bureau with the Ministry of Public Security told Xinhua News Agency on Dec 2.

Current law stipulates that pedestrians will receive a warning, or a fine from 5 yuan (80 US cents) to 50 yuan, if they are caught by the police violating traffic rules.

Given the fact that the punishment is light, it is common for pedestrians in many cities to break traffic rules.

Such actions were called the "Chinese style of crossing roads" on a micro blog recently, with netizens sarcastically saying that "crossing the road has nothing to do with red lights, and people can go whenever there is a large crowd of people."

The credibility system for traffic safety is expected to prevent the "Chinese style of crossing the road", said Qiu Baochang, a lawyer from the China Consumers’ Association.

People violating traffic rules should be reported to their companies, and by doing this more people will observe traffic laws, Qiu said.