A senior expert warned on Wednesday that Beijing should be aware
of possible transport over-construction in its preparations for the
2008 Olympics.
Zhou Ganzhi, a former minister of construction, suggested at the
China (Beijing) Olympic Transportation Forum that the city should
not only rely on infrastructure construction to solve congestion,
which is widely recognized as a key challenge for the 2008
Games.
Zhou said the Olympics should be seen as a special kind of 'rush
hour' in which heavy traffic is concentrated in a particular period
and certain area.
"We shouldn't develop the city's transport solely according to
the Olympics," he said, warning that there was a risk of
squandering money on facilities that will be useless
afterwards.
Zhou said that municipal authorities and the Beijing Organizing
Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (
BOCOG) should pay attention to transport management as well as
construction.
"People often complain, for example, about the lack of road
signs and the incomprehensibility of the ones that are there …
These seemingly minor problems are actually important to ensure
smooth traffic," he said.
The academician, from both the Chinese Academy
of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, described
transport construction as time- and money-consuming and called for
more thorough planning.
"If the construction is done, it's very hard to change it. So we
must have a cautious and all-round plan in accordance with the
development of the city's general transport system," he said.
Dozens of experts attended the two-day forum, which started on
Tuesday, to share views in tackling transportation problems for the
Games.
The first such forum was in May, and discussed a wide range of
issues from transportation system development to digital
intelligent vehicle systems and simulations.
The Beijing Municipal Transportation Committee presented a
report on the strategic transportation planning of the Beijing
Olympics. Government officials, who worked with Athens organizers
during the 2004 Games, also briefed the forum on the situation
there.
Liu Jingmin, BOCOG's executive vice president, was present at
the forum. He admitted Beijing faced a challenge but was optimistic
about its prospects.
"It's also an opportunity, and I believe this city's traffic
conditions will be largely improved after the 2008 Games," he
said.
"We need to listen to experts' views carefully, and it should be
a piece of team work bringing specialists from various fields
together."
(China Daily December 9, 2004)