The journey from
Xizhimen in northwest Beijing's Haidian District to Dongsi Shitiao
in eastern Beijing's Dongcheng District, along the northern section
of the Second Ring Road, took around 20 minutes by public transport
two or three years ago.
Now, however, covering
the same distance takes nearly 40 minutes on average and as much as
two hours if there are traffic jams.
Traffic problems in
Beijing have become a serious headache for residents and the
municipal government.
Beijing's roads are like
an enormous parking lot at rush hour. People complain that riding a
bicycle is often faster than driving a car.
The number of motor
vehicles in Beijing has exceeded 2 million, an official with the
municipal government's traffic committee told a press conference
last month.
Zhang Lingwei, a
25-year-old office worker who commutes by bus every day from
Haidian District to her workplace in the south of the city,
described her daily experience.
"Originally, it just
took me less than one hour to travel from my home to my workplace
if everything went smoothly," she said. "But now I have to
purposely set out 45 minutes earlier every morning, taking the
morning rush into consideration.
"The bus is always at a
standstill. Sitting on the bus, you might see bicycles and
pedestrians on the road weaving their way slowly between buses and
cars in all directions, and all I can do is merely wait
patiently.''
A middle-aged United
States professor with a renowned Chinese university, who refused to
be identified, said Beijing's traffic was getting "progressively
worse'' and was "terrible'' in rush hour.
"It makes it really hard
to plan when you are going to cross town because you never know how
long it will take,'' said the professor, who has been living in
Beijing for 15-and-a-half years.
She also recalled that,
about a decade ago, the roads in Beijing were not as broad as they
are now. At that time, horses and carts could even be seen on
Beijing's main streets, and traffic jams were rare, she
said.
But, as the times
changed, the roads in Beijing have been extended and broadened on
an unprecedented scale. The number of roads built in Beijing since
1998 alone exceeds all those constructed in the previous 20
years.
Reasons for
traffic jams
What are the reasons for
the notorious traffic situation in Beijing?
At a press conference on
Beijing's proposed solutions to traffic jams held in late
September, Liu Xiaoming -- deputy director with the Beijing
Municipal Communications Commission -- discussed the reasons for
the traffic tension.
With people's needs for
transport facilities increasing substantially over the past few
years, the road network in Beijing is far from rational, said
Liu.
Stimulated by high
demand, the number of private cars in Beijing has increased since
1995 at an average annual rate of over 30 percent, while the number
of motor vehicles overall has increased by only around 15 percent
per year on average over the same period.
In previous years, a car
was a consumer good that Chinese families did not even dare dream
of owning, but cars are now becoming more accessible to the
masses.
Guo Yong, head of the
Beijing-based Yayuncun Automobile Trade Market's business centre,
said motor vehicles have sold particularly well so far this year in
the capital.
He told China
Daily that, in his market alone, nearly 6,000 motor vehicles
have been sold in one month at peak periods, with the daily volume
of business amounting to between 200 and 300 vehicles
sold.
Explaining the surge in
demand, Guo said: "Nowadays, cars are quite common for the masses,
who can afford them and also have a need for them.
"Moreover, relatively
speaking, Beijing boasts a better consumer environment as well as a
steady and open policy.''
In a survey conducted by
a well-known women's magazine, 63 percent of the 50 white-collar
women polled said they were very interested in cars and they could
list more than 10 brands. Some of them even mentioned car brands
with which most Chinese are not very familiar.
Of the 50 women polled,
12 percent already had a car and they said that, for them, driving
a car was so natural that they did not need to think about
it.
Cars have become a part
of these women's lives and are regarded as not just a means of
transport but also as a mobile office and dressing room.
For a long time, most
Chinese believed that a car was something for only men and not
women, and this attitude can still be seen in car advertisements,
most of which are aimed at a male audience.
However, the fact that
women are buying cars with their own money shows that the age of
the car in China is coming.
At last month's press
conference, Liu also explained that road construction in Beijing
has failed to keep up with the sharp increase in the number of
cars.
The government has found
that the increasing volume of cars has been seizing limited traffic
resources from public transport, added Liu.
Xu Shu, a 23-year-old
sales representative with a foreign-funded corporation, said he
plans to buy a car at the end of this year.
When questioned why he
chose to buy a car rather than travel by public transport everyday,
Xu said he does not have a fixed workplace but has to visit several
hypermarkets every day and some of them are in the suburbs. Owning
a car is more convenient and saves time compared to traveling by
bus or metro, he said.
Xu added that, at the
same time, he understood that the increase in the number of private
cars would worsen the already poor traffic conditions but he said
he could see no better way out.
Another factor that has
aggravated traffic conditions is the absence of a modern traffic
consciousness among private car buyers and drivers as well as other
citizens, said Liu.
In other international
metropolises, such as Paris and Tokyo, the volume of private cars
far exceeds the number in Beijing. However, 60 to 80 percent of
citizens in large cities in Europe or the United States travel on
public transport, a rate two or three times that in
Beijing.
In Beijing, most of the
important political, commercial and cultural locations are
concentrated in the area within the Fourth Ring Road and this is a
root cause of today's heavy traffic load, according to
Liu.
However, some experts
hold that, in addition to objective factors such as the larges
volume of vehicles, the sharp increase in new cars and the
relatively slow expansion of roads, another root cause of Beijing's
traffic jams lies in the layout of the capital city and poor
traffic management.
According to sources
with the China Economic Herald newspaper, the sharp
increase in car numbers over the past few years is not the only
reason for the traffic jams.
Taking into
consideration the present population in Beijing, the current
traffic situation in the capital is far from reasonable given that
the volume of vehicles totals only around 2 million, whether the
situation is viewed in terms of international precedent or
theoretical analysis.
The sources said this
indicates that there is great room for improvement in administering
the current level of traffic.
Experts have called on
the relevant departments to focus on the rational layout of the
traffic network, including metro lines, flyovers, platform bridges
and pedestrian underpasses.
For instance, there
continued to be traffic jams around the Xizhimen cloverleaf
intersection in Haidian District, even after the junction was
rebuilt in 1999.
It is clear that the
government failed to deal properly with road intersections, which
have resulted in bottlenecks in the road network and thus directly
led to traffic jams.
Improving traffic
administration constitutes a systematic project, involving the
quality of personnel and the formulation and implementation of
relevant rules and policies, the sources added.
An anonymous Internet
user giving his opinion on the Sina website pointed out that, as
China's traffic administration departments lack a comprehensive
management system for traffic flow, traffic jams that take place on
one road often affect traffic on several other routes.
"In this regard, we
should learn from the practice of other countries,'' he added.
"When there is a traffic jam on one road, the traffic lights on
other routes should be adjusted accordingly and the flow of
vehicles controlled, relieving the overall congestion.''
Not long ago, there was
controversy when it was said that the municipal government would
restrict the increasing number of private cars in order to relieve
the capital's traffic conditions.
It was also said that
private car drivers would have to pay an extra tax when applying
for a license plate.
An official surnamed
Tong, of the Municipal Communications Commission, told China
Daily that this story arose from a discussion meeting in which
the commission outlined its tentative plans for resolving the
capital's traffic jams to the higher-level delegates of the Beijing
Municipal People's Congress
She explained that the
proposal was put forward at a forum and so she personally believed
that the restrictions on private cars would by no means be put on
the agenda in the near future.
In addition, the motor
manufacturing industry is a key industry for the capital, and
government policies would continue to encourage car buying, added
Tong.
Government
measures
There is great curiosity
among Beijingers as to what measures the government will take to
improve the city's notorious traffic environment.
At a press conference,
the Beijing Municipal Communications Commission outlined its
measures for the near future on how to relieve the traffic
tensions.
The measures include
compiling a document on the issue, elaborating what the government
has done and the achievements it has made over the past decade, and
also summarizing experiences and lessons to be learned.
By analyzing the current
problems with the traffic system, the government will be able to
draw up scientific plans to administer transport.
The document is now
being compiled and is open to public comment. Work on it is
expected to finish at the end of this year.
The commission also
promised to devote major efforts to developing public transport and
make traffic in the city more efficient.
Concrete steps that have
been proposed include speeding up the construction of the urban
rail system, such as lines 4, 5, 9 and 10, the feeder line for the
2008 Olympic Games and a special line to the airport.
The government is also
scheduled to implement a more affordable, flexible and
appropriately scaled system called the Bus Rapid Transit system.
This is due to have a total length of 16 kilometers and be at the
southern part of the city's central axis road.
This system is based on
the principles of light-rail transit but, instead of investing
capital in trains and track, it will utilize buses in a service
that will be integrated with key components of the existing
transport infrastructure for cars, such as roads and rights of way,
intersections, and traffic signals.
According to the
commission, the project will be start being used by the end of next
year.
In addition, the
government will seek both a temporary solution and a permanent cure
to the traffic tension and alleviate the contradiction between
pedestrians, cars and roads basing on the existing
conditions.
In the area of Baiyilu
in Haidian District, there are 37 bus routes, severely reducing the
speed of the overall traffic flow. After being transformed in line
with the outlined public transit network, the existing 37 bus
routes will be reduced to 24, ensuring a high-speed, continuous
traffic flow around this area.
The commission is also
working on plans to strengthen administration of both the transport
industry and traffic order, at the same time fostering a modern
traffic consciousness among citizens.
Proposed
solutions
As regards how to reduce
traffic jams, experts in other fields have come up with various
proposals.
Sociologist Zhou
Xiaozheng, a 56-year-old associate professor with Renmin University
of China, told China Daily: "It is ridiculous for a person
weighing 50 or 60 kilograms to drive a machine weighing several
tons.''
Diseases of the
respiratory tract have become the main threat to the health of the
capital's citizens in winter in recent years, and the 2 million
cars are to blame, he added.
Therefore, Zhou
suggested that people use bicycles, which are an environmentally
friendly means of transport, and at the same time strictly restrict
the use of private cars.
However, a source with
the China Economic Herald said: "Our policies should not
be directed against the increase in automobiles but ought to target
how to welcome this new civilization, a feature of which is the
leading position of cars in society.''
Other specialists said
they believe that developing a fast urban public transport system
is the best way to ease the capital's transport
pressures.
A decrease in the amount
of traffic jams is not only an obligation of the host city of the
Olympic Games but also a duty of the municipal
government.
At the first session of
the 12th Beijing Municipal People's Congress held at the beginning
of this year, 258 delegates put forward 15 bills or proposals on
the issue of traffic administration.
Since where there is a
will, there is a way, Beijing can thus take effective measures to
encourage public transport and improve the traffic
situation.
(China Daily October 7,
2003)