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Hate Traffic? Yet Another Reason for Bike Infrastructure.
A ten-day traffic jam stretching more than 60 miles outside of Beijing, China is a nightmare – a nightmare for those in their cars, for the Chinese government, and for its citizens. The jam, noted as the longest in history, formed on August 14 and has caused some drivers to be stuck on the road for six days.
(Associated Press/Alexander F. Yuan)
According to The Hindu,
The number of vehicles in Beijing has increased by 1,900 a day on average in the first six months of this year, officials said at a recent transportation seminar. Beijing, like many of China’s big cities, has invested heavily on widening roads, building towering flyovers and expanding its subway system. It is, however, still struggling to keep pace with the surge of new vehicles. China, with its fast-expanding middle-class, this year, overtook the United States to become the world’s biggest car market. In Beijing alone, a city of 20 million, the total number of vehicles is expected to hit 7 million by 2015. The city’s roads can accommodate 6.7 million vehicles…To ease the burden on the roads, the government is planning to invest 331.2 billion Yuan ($ 49.4 billion) in the next five years to expand its subway system by 850 km and increase the usage of public transport to 40 per cent.
Hopefully, China’s efforts include bike infrastructure and increasing the bike-mode share, in addition to expanding its public transportation system. Similar problems are popping up in countries near and far. Click here for a slide show of 12 of the world’s most high traffic areas.
Similar recurring nightmares (albeit not as long as Beijing’s) are clogging our own backyards. Next time, instead of sitting idle in your car for two hours on you way to work and for two hours on the way back, ride your bike. Worst case scenario, it will take you the same amount of time as when you sat in traffic. However, when you bike commute you don’t subject yourself to the frustration of going nowhere and annoying radio morning shows. You feel refreshed and not the least bit irritated from the time you wasted sitting in traffic – because you didn’t!
In addition to biking your work commute and errands, take action and protect vital bicycle funding in your community. The more citizens on bikes, the less traffic and the happier we will all be.
The League is working to build a Bicycle Friendly America. Get involved, and enjoy the ride.
Meghan Cahill
League Director of Communications
Cahill joined the League in December 2008 and has a BA in Media Communications with a concentration in Italian Studies from the College of Charleston.
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August 25th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Wow. Reminds me of the Long Island Expressway, aka, “The World’s Longest Parking Lot”. I guess Beijing now has that honor.
Unfortunately, one cannot simply put billions of Chinese in cars, as the picture so demonstrates. There ain’t room and soon enough, there will not be oil.
But I would be careful of urging Chinese back on their bicycles. After all, Mao’s China was a picture of the working class on Flying Pigeons. Cars are seen as a repudiation of and liberation from drab worker life under classical Communism. I think they will have to figure out a middle ground. As will we over here.
August 25th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
I thought the V-shaped channel in the photo was the bikeway. It looks like the person dressed in orange is holding a bike.
But for a 60 mile (one-way) commute, I think I’d rather take a train.
Also, it looks from the photo like the Chinese drive much bigger SUVs than Americans do. I see a couple buses, but all the rest are really huge SUVs. The green tarps are an interesting styling touch that I haven’t seen in the US.
August 25th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Hmmm, yeah who loves a traffic jam! Interesting problem but picture show how prosperity brings problems.
Meghan wrote: “Hopefully, China’s efforts include bike infrastructure and increasing the bike-mode share,”
Chinese already have impressive modal bicycles share.
Beijing (2000) 27%
Shanghai (1999) 39.01
Guangzhou (1998) 21.47%
Nanjing (2002) 43.79%
These cities that are 2x, 3x, 4x the size of Denmark.
China backs bikes to kick car habit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jun/15/china.jonathanwatts1
August 28th, 2010 at 8:14 am
Salon’s Andrew Leonard has a thoughtful article, “The silver lining in the great China traffic jam”
http://salon.com/a/s8w4fAA==
“The gridlock is insane, but so is Chinese investment in high-speed rail, subways …”
Using bikes to more 50 tons of coal is realistic. Chinese need more trains and rapid urban transit.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
I have no idea what are the forces behind China’s current mode split and the change in that in recent decades. Sounds like Khal has a little more insight than I do. In any case, I’m wary of pronouncing the “proper solution” for another country knowing so little about it. We know that cycling in the United States differs in some very important ways from, say, the Netherlands, whose infrastructure some here are so anxious to copy. Who’s to say the Netherlands model is any more appropriate for China? I certainly don’t know, but I’m not sure this article showed much knowledge of Chinese bicycling issues beyond the gridlock either.