China needs own style in addressing city-car dilemma
- Source: Xinhua
- [08:25 July 20 2010]
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With help from his parents, Li Xuejun, a high school teacher in Changchun, capital city of northeast China's Jilin Province, bought his first car after graduating from college in 2008, but this has brought him more trouble than enjoyment.
Rush-hour horrors on the road and difficulty finding a parking place has always been a major problem for Li, as it has been for the other tens of millions of car owners in China, the world's fastest-growing car market that surged nearly 48 percent in the first half of 2010.
"To avoid traffic jams I leave home for the office at 6 a.m.," two hours before work begins at 8, said Li, who lives in a suburban community where it takes more than one hour to reach his downtown work place.
"And when I finish work each day at 5 p.m., I usually choose to stay in the office one hour longer so I can miss the congestion," Li said.
On a typical Monday afternoon at the East Chaoyang Street in Changchun, among China's second-tier cities, cars are crawling at a snail's pace as drivers are blasting their horns in a sign of their growing impatience.
In China's capital city, Beijing, where the number of vehicles exceeded 4 million as of November last year, cars are not traveling at a comfortable speed, even on the wide 10-lane Changan Avenue.
"As more cars hit the road each day across cities in the world's largest auto market, the most notable issues that arise are road congestion and limited parking spaces," said Ge Baoshan, professor with Jilin University, who studies automobile economics.
Li Xuejun said once he and friends were driving their car on a Sunday, heading to a shopping complex, but ended up returning home without buying anything as they couldn't find a place to park and the journey to the mall took them two hours.
China's total number of on-road vehicles reached 63 million in 2009. A previous official estimate expects the number to rise to 75 million this year.
This target looks easily reached as the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers figures showed the country sold more than 9 million autos in the first half of the year.
"Limited energy, resources and a worsening environment are making us worried, but we can not abandon cars because people have the need and economic growth relies on it," said Zhong Zhihua, professor with Hunan University, who spoke while attending an industrial forum during the 7th China International Automobile Fair being held in Changchun.
"Cars and city building are naturally contradictory. City building can never catch up with the fast-growing number of cars," said Zheng Junkang, mayor of Liuzhou city in southwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as the greatest challenge is how to reach a balance between the capacity of cities and the fast-growing car market.
As manager of a city where the auto industry accounts for 43 percent of the economy, Zheng Junkang said "the development of cities and cars should be coordinated".
Zheng said public buses should be widely promoted amid the fast growth of private cars, while city planning is also key in addressing the challenge.
Zheng said cities should not over-stress the different functions of districts, as this will create a morning and evening-tides phenomenon: people all hurry to work in the morning and rush back home in the evening.
Fast-growing cars cannot be a long-term plan and it would be unimaginable and also unrealistic for China to have a car penetration rate comparable to the U.S. or Japan, Ge Baoshan said.
Cities should strengthen the building of their mass transit system and design an appropriate transportation structure that is convenient for people's commuting, said Ge.
"My car is even becoming a burden for me when I can't find a place for parking," Liu complained, adding he actually missed the old days when he rode a bicycle to classes in college.
