Question: What actions, if any, should the The Beijing Traffic Management Bureau take to encourage the development of new innovations to reduce traffic congestion traffic congestion in the city of Beijing?
Client: The Beijing Traffic Management Bureau is responsible for drafting local laws and regulations relating to road and traffic management, supervising and inspecting traffic police performance in law enforcement, responsible for administrative lawsuits.
Options：
1.Maintain the status quo. It means that the new options will not change the current policy. Now Beijing has its policy of controlling the new cars, which is called ‘license-plate lottery policy’ which the government only give out a number of 20,000 legal rights to buy cars, and private cars only a percentage of 8 in this number. At every 26th if each month, government will tell who have ‘win’ the ‘prize’ in those applicants. We have to keep this policy going on to make sure the speed of cars increasing will not be too high, and then we can think of the innovations to deal with these cars.
2. Create new bus only lanes. In fact, Beijing has a very strong bus transportation system, it has more than 900 lines which can almost deliver you to anywhere you want to reach in the city. And the price is incredible cheap to most people, which you can spend at most 3 RMB one time to cross a distance of 30 Kilometers! While you can hardly see any bus only lanes in the city, and this situation strongly stimulate me to develop a new policy to improve the congestion. Dalian, a beautiful city in the northeast of China, where I finished my BS degree before I got here, has many bus only lanes in the city. When it comes to the special time, no other vehicles can be on those bus only lanes. And the data I found in the Internet that the policy in Dalian improve buses to run at an average speed of 30 Km/h compared with those without bus only lanes running at an average of 15 Km/h. Many times when I was in a taxi, I saw buses running on the special lanes and passing all other vehicles in other lanes. When people see the great advantage on time saving and convenience, I think they will consider to change. Therefore the new bus only lanes can be a innovation to solve the congestion with an impressive effect.
3. Start congestion charge policy. It is well known in the world that London and New York has their policies of congestion fee. In London, Cars which run in Congestion Charge Zones will pay £11.50 per day, and for each non-exempt vehicle that travels within the zone, and with a penalty of between £65 and £195 levied for non-payment. As a result, number of cars running into the center of the city has a decrease of 30%, buses has a 25% increase on the running speed. I think if we can improve to set the charge in a good range due to the level of congestion after investigation, then this policy will get a better influence on solving the congestion.
Hi Yulong,
ReplyDeleteYou have identified a good problem and some great solutions. Also you have some facts and figures that make it more interesting.
You may also want to go with technology as an alternative solution to congestion charge policy. I remember I saw a video on polarized sound waves. Using this technology sound can be made to travel in a straight line. So if a car tries to go to a restricted zone, the driver will hear a loud noise and will move out of that zone. I am not sure of the pricing involved in using this technology.
Overall a great blog. I hope my suggestion helps.
Thanks
Varun
Hi Yulong,
ReplyDeleteYour statement of your policy question and client are very clear and accurate. And the traffic problem is really a big issue in Beijing to my knowledge.
I really like the second option that you come up with. To improve the bus speed and assign a traffic lane to the public transportation will improve the efficiency of public transit. People will have more incentive to take bus, which is faster, than drive by themselves.
The third option is also a solution. However, there is more to consider in this case. Beijing is a city with high population density. There will be residential homes, offices and other commercial buildings within a certain zone, I assume. The congestion charge may have to be classified by these categories.
I also had some suggestions. When I was in Beijing, I noticed that many taxis will drive around without customers, and there will be private cars with only one person. This increases the traffic burden, especially during the peak hours. Thus, to promote car-sharing programs, car-sharing apps and reduce taxi idling time by call-only services can also reduce the traffic congestion.
Thanks
Shiqi