With increased mobility and spending power, China now has about as many drivers as the U.S. has people. Although as much as two-thirds of the Chinese population don't have access to motor vehicles, more than 300 million Chinese have become licensed drivers.

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The number of drivers in China has exploded over the last four years when just 100 million Chinese were licensed to drive an car. Thirty-five Chinese cities have 1 million vehicles and major cities like Shenzhen and Beijing have two million drivers, or more.

The Chinese public security ministry responsible for placing agency and traffic control issued a statement accounting for the numbers. The agency has cracked down on reckless driving and other infractions recently trying to keep roads safer and help in the constant battle against traffic congestion.

Ironically, the ministry also was looking into ways of making drivers licenses even easier to get. Agency officials said they were considering dropping the mandatory driver's education classes needed to become a licensed driver.

More drivers mean increased demand for vehicles, a problem for urban areas already dealing with high amounts of carbon gas emissions and traffic congestion. Vehicle makers were expected to sell almost 23 million new cars, rucks and SUVs in China during the coming year, according to the official China Association of Automotive Manufacturers.

With so many drivers and vehicles on the road, major Chinese cities like Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing have cracked and on the number of autos allowed in certain areas, hoping to curtail the level of tailpipe emissions.

Although more drivers are licensed with more the road, driving safety measures seem to have had an impact. Or maybe, drivers are just get more experienced and roads are getting better.

Either way, the number of major traffic accidents has declined. Speeding accidents resulting in death have declined 36 percent since 2012 while deaths resulting from drunk driving have dropped almost 40 percent, according to the association of automotive manufacturers.

Tagsdriving, cars, motorists, vehicles, autos