交通堵塞: Rush Hour 3

UIBE, 31ºC, sunny

Traffic jams are one of Beijing’s biggest daily problems. Many people opt for bicycles since cars are relatively expensive. However, during rush hour, traffic often grinds to a halt. Public transport is heavily subsidised, a trip on the underground costing just 20p and a bus ticket setting you back a whole 4p. If London public transport were so cheap, there would probably be no need for the congestion charge. Yet Beijing suffers from another problem – its infrastructure cannot cope with so many cars and so many people.

In a bid to reduce air pollution in the build up to the Olympics, the government implemented traffic calming system which only allowed certain number plates to drive on certain days of the week (e.g. if your number plate ends with a 2, you can only drive on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday). The system stayed. It so happens that I saw a reference to this in China Daily the other day. There was little headline squeezed into the small print at bottom left-hand corner of page 2 with a brief description: “Car plate ban to change”. The news item explained that the Monday car ban on number plates ending in 0 and 5 would be changed to affect number plates ending in 1 and 6, effective from next Monday. There was hardly a moment’s notice given to this piece of news, but if you miss it, the fine is sure to be severe.

Another article in the paper explained that Beijing’s disobedient drivers had taken to using, and subsequently blocking, express bus lanes. Where buses on these routes would expect to take just two minutes to hop from stop to stop, it now takes as long as 40 minutes at the height of rush hour due to the impatience of the Beijing driver.

How can Beijing address this problem? Public transport is already very cheap. Perhaps they should consult Jackie Chan.