Beijing Ren spend 52 minutes per day in traffic
In China’s ancient cities, the automobile question is starting to becoming more of a looming issue. Cities such as Beijing, Xi’an, and the older east coast former colonial cities were built with the horse and cart and public traffic in mind rather than the automobile, now that the number of cars on the road has increased exponentially in the past few years the traffic systems in major cities are at breaking point as Asia One describes:
Beijingers have the longest commutes of any city dwellers in China, spending an average of one hour to and from work, according to a study released on Saturday.Academicians warned that the lengthy transportation times in many cities showed that the “development of traffic systems is lagging behind urbanization”.
Calculations by the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that Beijing tops 50 major cities in commuting times – 52 minutes on average.
The southern economic hub of Guangzhou, the eastern financial center of Shanghai and the booming southern city of Shenzhen followed the capital closely with 48, 47 and 46 minutes, respectively.
Residents from 17 cities, out of a total 50 cities analyzed, spend more than 30 minutes in traffic.
“Spending half an hour is not too bad but could still be improved to catch up with the international standard,” said a senior researcher with the academy, Niu Wenyuan.
Niu led the project of writing the “2010 Report on New Chinese Model of Urbanization”, which was released on Saturday and included a calculation of traffic times.
“Urbanization created comparatively serious bottlenecks in traffic flow,” Niu told Chengdu-based Western China Metropolis Daily.
Besides the highlighted urbanization problems, Beijing has seen a massive influx of migrants who cram the metro system and vehicles that paralyze the road system.
More than 22 million people are living in the capital city. But the original plan of the municipal government was to contain the total population to less than 18 million by 2020.
The total number of cars registered in the first four months of 2010 rose sharply from 23.8 percent from a year earlier to 248,000, according to the Beijing municipal taxation office.
The increase rate will put the city on course to have five million cars on the roads by year’s end.
Li Kang, a 28-year-old Beijing local, said her home is only five km away from her workplace in Guomao (international trade center), but it takes a taxi 40 minutes to “creep there”.
“Riding a bus to the subway station is even more time-consuming. When I just decided to switch back to a bike lately, the news said that air pollution is unbearable in the city.”
Many netizens claiming to spend far more than 52 minutes commuting suggested “strict traffic control that was once employed during the 2008 Olympic Games should reactivated”.
Time calculations in the research examine five values: distribution of industries and demographics, average distance to work, per capita road length, percentage of multi-dimensions in traffic systems, and percentage of people using public transport.
Diverse means of transport, including working, cycling, public transport and cars, were also calculated, according to Niu.
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Not surprised really. Beijing’s subway system is pretty poor and the city is very spread out.
The Guangzhou figures are about right (I sit in traffic everyday). If drivers were a bit more intelligent that time could be reduced by 10-15 mins.
45 mins is about right for a 15-20km trip.
The govt is working on fixing traffic flows but with mixed results.
Bring in the foreign traffic engineering experts and cut that time in half, not to speak of the reduction in pollution attributable to prolonged idling.
Just curious, is there such a thing as a traffic expert? As soon as one route becomes better more people take it and the problem starts again. If the route is cheap or free more people take that instead….. still the same problems.
The president of Iran has a PHD in traffic management, we should ask him!
No…you must have misread…he has a degree in trafficking
Woxihuanpijiu, I’m no expert on the subject but over the years I have seen new traffic patterns, lane configurations, and new traffic signals, transform intersections that were once a snarled mess into ones where traffic now moves smoothly and efficiently.
These guys and gals risking their lives, standing in the middle of heavy traffic, are relics of stone age traffic management
Maybe, but you also need drivers who will actually obey the signals. Plus ones that don’t just because they see a green light go into the centre of the road even though the traffic is not moving. Most of the traffic jams here are in my belief caused by poor and selfish driving.
52min/day seems a bit low for an average for Beijing – I’d be ecstatic if I could get my daily commute down to that.
As for the population increase, the main issue is that everyone wants to cram into the middle of the city. Beijing actually has a lot of land available outside the 5th ring – if they would only develop it. I see no reason to have fruit orchards in the city.