Most families in Beijing will each have a car by 2020, which
works out to more than 5 million vehicles on the capital's
streets.
And you think your commute now is difficult.
But all is not doom and gloom because, according to a report
issued by the Beijing municipal government, a new transport model
will be in operation by then.
Among the features of the new transport model:
• Six north-south highways to link the ring roads;
• Thirteen huge parking lots along the Fifth Ring Road with
connecting bus or metro services to downtown
destinations;
• More subways and bus lines to the city's suburbs.
One of the goals for 2010 is to have the closest bus stop to the
downtown area no more than an eight-minute walk away. Further,
bus-to-bus transfers will be within a 300-meter walking
distance.
The Beijing Transport Development Compendium, a 57-page
report issued by the municipal government, gave a specific
blueprint for transport development over the next 15 years.
According to the compendium, the municipal government spent 140
billion yuan (US$16.8 billion) on transport infrastructure
development between 1993 and 2003. That was some 5.3 percent of
Beijing's gross domestic product during that period.
But 80 percent of that money went to developing transport
infrastructure inside the Second Ring Road, where congestion is the
worst due to its highly built-up commercial and residential
areas.
As a result, the facilities and traffic patterns outside that
area have been left far behind. The compendium says that more urban
public facilities and entertainment sites will be developed in
areas beyond the Third Ring Road.
The compendium aims to utilize scientific and reasonable traffic
design and development to solve the city's problems without
paralyzing future generations' ability to do the same, said Liu
Xiaoming, deputy director with the Beijing Municipal Commission for
Communication.
The blueprint for the capital follows a philosophy known as
transit-orientated development (TOD), a concept that provides for
an expansion of urban areas in line with the layout of traffic
infrastructure and facilities.
The concept has been used effectively in many cities in the
world, including London, Paris, Tokyo and Seoul.
According to the philosophy, a city is divided into
neighborhoods, each with public transport arteries as its primary
focus, and traffic pattern for vehicles is built around
them.
"TOD adoption is a global trend in maintaining sustainable
development in cities," said Shao Chunfu, a professor at Beijing
Jiaotong University.
According to Shao, the urban traffic design used to be
subordinate to the city's development. Now, it gets priority in
guiding urban growth.
However, progress usually takes a decade to show any positive
effects, he added.
(China Daily June 14, 2005)