Year of the jam
Beijing gridlock defies solutions Under the deadening, all controlling hand of Chairman Mao, the phrase “the Chinese love affair with the automobile” was inconceivable. But Mao is gone, along with the suffocating poverty of his era, and the Chinese really do love their cars – a little too much in the opinion of the Beijing city fathers.
China’s capital is grinding to a halt because of traffic jams.
The city now has 4.7 million cars, nearly double the number five years ago, and the Associated Press reports that new cars are pouring onto Beijing’s streets at the staggering rate of 2,000 a day.
The city planners quickly hit on the obvious solution – build more roads. But they quickly learned the lesson that Americans have known for years: More roads mean even more cars and still more traffic jams.
The city of Beijing is now developing a master plan to ease the traffic congestion. But even the act of planning makes the congestion worse.
True to the law of unintended consequences, the mere existence of the plan caused the public to go on a car-buying spree in case one of the government’s solutions was to restrict new car sales.
The wait for some popular models is now as long as six months.
During the 2008 Olympics, the city, successfully if briefly, reduced congestion by ordering cars to be kept off the road on alternate days based on whether their license plate ended in an odd or even number. Those well enough off to do so simply went out and bought another car so they could drive every day.
Much of the congestion is self-inflicted. As the AP observed, “Aggressive driving is the norm, as is a casual disregard for traffic rules.” And the curious thing is that Beijing motorists don’t go all that far; 60 percent of their trips are less than three miles.
Beijing’s traffic planners, who have to have one of the world’s most thankless jobs, say many of the city’s residents would be better off walking or riding a bicycle. They’re having none of it.
Say this for Chairman Mao: He gave austerity a bad name.
Scripps Howard News Service