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Beijing transport efficiency is low

(chinanews.cn)
Updated: 2006-09-01 13:51

At present, Beijing has a heavy transportation load and there are 400 places where traffic jams often occur. The number of private cars in Beijing now reaches 2.7 million, hitting the 2 million mark four years earlier than experts expected.

The statement was made by Mao Baohua, a professor from the School of Transportation at Beijing Jiaotong University, who is also head of a transportation problem research team in Beijing.

According to Mao Baohua, transportation problems in Beijing are very typical, covering nearly every aspect of the transportation field. Heavy traffic jams occur in nearly every part of the city and often last for a whole day. Beijing is one of the cities in China with the most serious traffic jams.

"At present, transportation efficiency is very low in Beijing, far below the required standards," he said.

In recent years, the Beijing municipal transportation bureau has introduced a series of policies to promote the use of public transportation. By promoting public transportation, Mao said, it doesn't simply mean to build some more bus lanes or put more buses running on the street. The essential criterion to judge public transportation is that whenever going out, passengers' favorite transportation means is bus. In order to realize this goal, it is very important to set up an advanced public transportation network. At present, Beijing's public transportation only takes up 28% of the total transportation load in the city. In the next ten years, it should take up 50% of the city's total transportation load. To realize this goal, Beijing faces a tough task.

The professor didn't agree with those who attributed heavy traffic jams in Beijing to the fast increase of cars. Beijing's transportation network has serious defects, he said. In developed countries, branch lines develop faster than main lines or express lines. In Beijing, the situation is just the opposite. In recent years, both main and express lines have increased by 80%, while branch lines by only 10%.

"The problem of traffic jams cannot be solved by making the roads wider and wider. The key point is to set up a highly developed road network, so that transportation load can be reduced through multiple channels," he concluded.