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OPINION> EDITORIALS
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Way to ease traffic
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-03 07:46 Traffic congestion is a headache in urban areas worldwide. Traffic is becoming increasingly unmanageable in Beijing with the number of vehicles ever on the rise. The total number of automobiles was already over 3.5 million by the end of 2008, and is increasing at the rate of 1,000 cars a day. The current number-plate rotation scheme, which restricts cars on the road for five days a week, hardly makes for smooth traffic flow. Staggering office hours for much more working units including government departments is the latest move by the capital's municipal government to reduce traffic jams. Such a scheme was attempted during the Olympic Games last year, and it did ease bottlenecks to some extent. With different hours for different working units and some even working at home on most weekdays, the new move will quite probably help ease the capital's traffic flow to some degree. However, with a population of nearly 20 million and central government and municipal government departments concentrated in downtown areas and 1,000 more vehicles everyday, neither the number-plate scheme nor flexible working hours will eventually solve the problem.
Lack of vision in drafting a policy for the automobilization of our cities has resulted in a dilemma where the growth of the auto industry is problematic for management of urban traffic. The large-scale widening of roads and even elimination of cyclists' lanes in recent decades have failed as solutions. Before the opening of the fourth and fifth ring roads, there were reports that these would greatly ease traffic congestion. The rush now witnessed on the ring roads suggests that urban planners underestimated the impact that rapid increase of private vehicles would have on public traffic. If a portion of the funds used for widening roads had been invested in subways and other means of mass transit, we would have had a better mass transportation system now, allowing for easier traffic flow on the roads. It is unrealistic, if not disastrous, for a city as populous as Beijing to have its residents commuting to work in their own cars. Fortunately, the Beijing government has shifted its traffic priority from widening roads to developing mass transit systems. More subway lines becoming operational in recent years has, to a large extent, eased traffic flow. Beijing will increase special lanes for buses by 20 km and extend some of the routes and operation hours this year to further raise the carrying capacity of mass transport. This is the right approach and the only way to alleviate traffic congestion as high capacity and convenient mass transport systems alone can discourage more people from using their own cars. (China Daily 06/03/2009 page8) |
