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Traffic jams test Beijing’s patience
Print Edition
Lu Jie suffered a lot during several “long journeys” to the office ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival which fell on Thursday.
“Normally it takes me 40 minutes to drive to the office in the morning, but I have had to spend more than an hour recently due to holiday traffic jams,” said Lu, who is among tens of millions of office workers in Beijing.
“It took me nearly 20 minutes to cover a few hundred meters in the morning rush hour, even though I left home half an hour earlier than usual,” he added.
Travel peaked on Wednesday afternoon as the traffic index released by the Beijing Municipal Commission stood at 7.0 and the average vehicle speed was only 24.4 kilometers per hour.
September is considered the most congested month in Beijing with the new school year and holidays such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day contributing to congestion.
Festival traffic jams are particularly loathed by citizens, with some blaming the surge of private car ownership and the inefficiency of the public transportation system.
Figures from the BMCT show that as many as 5.35 million private cars had been registered in the city by the end of July this year.
Suspended operations
Subway Line 4, one of the busiest, running 50km through western Beijing, suspended operations for nearly two hours on Monday due to a signal failure, leading to even worse congestion during the morning rush.
The congestion also raised public concern over air pollution from vehicle emissions.
The Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau says car emission contributes 22.2 percent of PM2.5 pollutants, the second biggest contributor to the problem after the 24.5 percent from regional transfer of pollutants.
In addition, vehicle emissions are closely related to their running speed. “When a car runs at 20 to 30km per hour, its emission can be three times more than at 60km per hour,” said Li Kunsheng, the official in charge of car emissions with the bureau.
“Environmental protection can only be achieved through easing traffic congestion,” Li added.
Beijing municipality has taken a series of measures to tackle congestion and pollution.
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