【記者手記】效仿倫敦治理交通擁堵

【Reporter's Log】We should follow London's lead to manage our traffic

中國日報網 2013-12-03 16:47

【記者手記】效仿倫敦治理交通擁堵

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.''

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我站在擁擠的北京北部的5號線站臺上時是早上8點。我只是想擠進這個早高峰時段的地鐵，能在上午9:30以前到達位于市南的目的地，但是嘗試了五次都失敗了。

因為要和時間賽跑，所以我放棄了地鐵改乘出租車。

我心里想：“好吧，只要能按時到，貴點也值了。”

但當出租車被堵在第四環路時，我很快意識到自己完全錯了。

幸運的是，我很早就從公寓出發了，最終還是設法準時到了，但是臭名昭著的北京交通讓我想起了在倫敦的日子。

倫敦面積也很大，人口也眾多。每平方公里的車輛密度比北京要大，但其交通管理卻比北京好得多。

倫敦市長鮑里斯·約翰遜幾周前訪華，之后他發表了一篇贊美連接北京和上海的高速鐵路的文章。

盡管有這個最先進的項目，但中國的城市的確有很多方面要向倫敦學習，尤其是城市交通。

中國傳統智慧認為路越寬越多，交通就越不堵塞，但為什么北京交通網這么發達卻還那么堵？

倫敦的情況并非如此。甚至是每個方向有兩車道的尤斯頓路，也比北京大多數的路窄很多。

倫敦幾乎沒有很寬的路，它的交通地圖就像小街道的密密麻麻的蜘蛛網一樣，即使一條路不通司機也有諸多選擇。