Friday, November 4, 2011

Can Beijing regain its status as the world’s “bicycle kingdom”?


Perhaps one of the most effective ways in addressing Beijing’s rising automobile fleet has been a variety of vehicle controls. The license plate-based even-odd traffic regulations policy places a ban on vehicles according to even and odd numbered license plates on alternate days. This means car owners can only drive on alternate days, and since 2008, 930,000 cars have been banned from driving each day. A license plate lottery system has been implemented to reduce new car registrations, and the policy led to a 59.1% decrease in new vehicles purchased. In addition, parking prices in non-residential areas have increased, resulting in a reduction of trips taken by automobile.
Public transportation will also play a key role in encouraging Beijing residents to drive less. The city has a goal of increasing the public transit modal share to 50% by 2015. In order to reach this goal, the Beijing municipal government has said it would build 500 kilometers of subway lines over the next 5 years, building upon the existing 14 transit lines.


Beijing bikers, photo by John Williams


more about China:

Linked Hybrid by Steven Holl Architects, and designing for the occupation of space in contemporary Beijing

Urban Planning Challenges in Asian Cities: Architect Jeffrey Heller contrasts Chinese, Indian approaches to growth

Exploring Multi-layered Hyper Dense Urban Environments through Spatial Analysis

Architecture & Urban Planning in China: urbanization to create massive infrastructure investment

No comments:

Post a Comment