Road tolls feasible, but subways full

• Source: Global Times
• [08:30 July 29 2010]
• Comments

Traffic grinds to a halt in the city Wednesday afternoon during rush hour on the North-South Elevated Road. Photo: Cai Xianmin

"We can't add anymore trains," he said. "If we do, the trains would be at a risk of colliding with one another."

The urban planning officials researching the feasibility of the implementing public charge tolls on city roads could not be reached for interview by the Global Times yesterday.

But Hua Feng, press officer for Shanghai Urban Construction and Communications Commission, the government body that oversees the bureau involved in the project, denied that subways would have a problem responding to increased passenger volumes if such a road system was adopted in the future.

"With the fast development of the subway system in the city, we are confident that the daily traffic jams could be reduced if more people were persuaded to take the subway," she told the Global Times yesterday.

According to Sun Lijun, a professor at the School of Traffic and Transportation from Tongji University, the city must first improve its public transport system if it wants to go ahead with plans to charge drivers road fees.

"The city needs to account for the fact that this will push some drivers to abandon their vehicles and switch over the subways and buses," he told the Global Times yesterday. "Even if this number is small, buses and subways will still have to make more room for passengers, or public transport will be too chaotic for commuters, who already fight through crowds every day."

Zheng Yunying contributed to this story