Comment

Traffic system needs to be updated, not limited

By Liu Fei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-27 09:43

As an increasing number of people rush around Beijing to snap up deals from car dealers, those who hate cars are becoming a lost minority.

A friend of mine once furiously commented to me that the cars parked along the curb have taken the space that "belonged" to him. "I should have the right to walk in that space!" he said red-necked.

And daily congestion on the road is also an easy target for his aggression. Because there are too many cars, then "private cars should be banned," he would suggest.

Of course my friend is an extreme example, but his attitude nevertheless represents a popular mood here in the big cities of the country: cars should be limited.

This sounds unpleasant to me, a genuine car fan who watches racing events and joins online sim-racing leagues. What if cars are really banned?

Though this is utterly impossible, increasing limits on car ownership and usage is not. Under pressure from the public, the government will probably raise car taxes and fees, making owning and driving a car more difficult.

Many people cite the 4 million cars in the city of Beijing as the source of the traffic problem, but Tokyo has 8 million and so does New York. As far as I know, Tokyo and New York have much better traffic systems than Beijing.

The road systems in Tokyo and New York are well designed, a result of decades, or even a century of development. On the other hand, Beijing's motor history is short and the recent development is explosive, it's just normal that the road and parking facilities cannot keep up with the development.

Also, the way people drive matters. The new car owners in Beijing tend to drive as much as possible, even when public transportation is even more convenient. The frequency of car usage rather than total numbers of cars is the real problem.

But with cars turning from a novelty to something we have now become used to, I am certain that people who want to get away from the car will use public transportation more and more. So people in Beijing, have more patience, things on the road could get better and better.