Number of cars in Beijing expected to nearly double in five years
- Source: Global Times
- [08:21 August 25 2010]
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By Fang Yunyu
Traffic congestion in Beijing is set to peak in five years, when the total number of cars is expected to nearly double, the Beijing Transportation Research Center announced Monday.
If people continue to purchase vehicles at the current rate of 1,900 new cars a day, the total will reach 7 million in 2015, reducing average speeds in the city to below 15 kilometers an hour, accord-ing to the transportation center's report.
"Beijing's already a big parking lot!" complained a taxi driver surnamed Gan during a traffic jam on the East Third Ring Road. "We're making another Great Wall, it's just that this one is made of cars."
By the end of 2009, Beijing had 4 million cars, a growth of 17 percent over 2008. Among these, 3 million were private cars, according to the municipal bureau of statistics' data.
"The urban layout forces people to buy cars," Pan Jiahua, the director of the Center for Urban Development and Environment at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the Global Times. Schools and hospitals tend to conglomerate in one place, but huge populations, like the hundreds of thousands living in Tiantongyuan, Changping district, don't have hospitals or schools nearby, he said. "There is a problem with city planning that leaves people no choice but to travel."
The report also pointed out that those who have cars drive them everywhere, with 44 percent in Beijing used for short-distance trips of less than five kilometers. The average annual mileage of one car can reach 15,000 kilometers, which is 1.5 times that of London's cars, and two times that of Tokyo's.
"Public transportation in the city is always very crowded and inconvenient," said Zhang Zhiyong, an automobile industry analyst.
"Plus today car ownership for many people satisfies their egos. So people prefer private cars and like to drive as often as possible," he added.
Beijing is also not yet mature for an automobile-laden city. Drivers need to be more civilized and cars run more efficiently, he said.
Zhang believed the municipal government wouldn't control car numbers through economic restrictions, as Shanghai does, because the automotive industry has contributed a lot to the city's economic development, and also it "is a short-term measure."
