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As a professor of transportation management, Gao Ziyou has thought more about severe traffic congestion than most, and his breakthrough ideas have helped manage the complicated relationships between pedestrians, vehicles and roads in Beijing and other cities.
On Saturday, Gao, 52, will share the Fudan Prize for Eminent Contributors to Management Science awarded by the Fudan Premium Fund of Management in Shanghai.
The root cause of transport problems in China's metropolises lies in the extreme imbalance between the fast growing demand on transportation and the supply of transportation resources, including roads, said Gao, a professor at the School of Traffic and Transportation at Beijing Jiaotong University.
"Without proper guidance, the efforts to ease congestion would be costly, yet ineffective," Gao said.
Gao and his team have spent more than 20 years solving traffic congestion woes. His research has led to a reputation as a leading expert in transportation in China and he has received many awards, including honors from the State Natural Sciences Awards for breakthroughs in the studies of space and time distribution in transportation.
Gao's team has applied its research findings in many ways. Their bus operation and dispatching command system, for example, was used in Beijing to coordinate more than 20,000 buses and 600 transit depots.
During the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the command system helped coordinate 2,000 buses and another 200 emergency vehicles for the opening and closing ceremonies. It also helped smoothly disburse the audience of 100,000 within 75 minutes on those nights, the Beijing Public Transport Group said.
Gao has since transferred his focus to rail transportation and the booming development of urban subway systems in Beijing and other major cities. His work has already helped boost energy efficiency on Beijing's metro lines.
Thorny transportation problems, including congestion, will become more complex due to the increase in private vehicles and the huge population shift to urban regions, Gao said. But joint efforts by authorities, including researchers from institutions, and increasing public awareness will ease the congestion gradually.
Wu Jianjun, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, who was Gao's student, has followed his mentor's work to continue pursuing improvements in public transportation.
Gao's hard work has encouraged his own research, Wu said.
zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn
