It was 8 am when I was crowded on a platform on Beijing's Line 5 in the northern part of the city. I was trying to squeeze into a peak-hour subway train to reach a destination in the south before 9:30 am, but I failed on my first five attempts.

Racing against the time, I gave up the subway for a cab instead.

I thought to myself, "Well, even if it's much more pricey, it's OK as long as I could be on time."

I soon realized I was totally wrong when the cab got stuck in traffic on the fourth ring road.

Luckily, I left my apartment quite early and still managed to get there just on time, but the infamous Beijing traffic made pine for my days in London.

The British capital is vast and populated, too. It has a higher car density per square kilometer than Beijing. But the traffic management is far better.

London Mayor Boris Johnson published an article after his China visit a few weeks ago to praise the high-speed railway connecting Beijing and Shanghai.

Despite this state-of-the-art project, Chinese cities actually have a lot to learn from London, particularly on urban transport.

It is conventional Chinese wisdom that bigger roads make traffic less congested. But why is Beijing, with rings of huge roads, still so jammed?

That's definitely not the case in London. Even Euston Road, a road in London with two lanes in each direction, is much smaller than most roads in Beijing.

With few big roads, London's road traffic map is like a cobweb of small streets, offering drivers more alternatives when one road is blocked.

But most drivers in Beijing only have big ring roads to choose from, leaving them with very few alternatives.

London does not merely rely on the road. It has a comprehensive transit system that includes a 150-year-old tube, railways to nearby suburban areas and waterways. This system is intelligent and offers a range of choices to commuters.

China's major cities, like Beijing and Shanghai, can learn from this example.

The nation is currently undergoing an ambitious and tremendous process of urbanization.

Rather than investing money heavily into state-of-the-art towers or skyscrapers, hopefully the decision-makers could take the chance to make our urban transport more efficient and intelligent to benefit more people.

Contact the writer through xieyu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/02/2013 page17)