The government is gearing up to play a bigger role in developing
public transportation, according to a document jointly released by
four ministries on Saturday.
The document, released by the National Development and Reform
Commission and the ministries of construction, finance and labour
and social security, describes the development of public
transportation as a priority and calls for favourable policies to
promote its expansion.
Qiu Baoxing, vice-minister of construction, said at the National
Conference of Public Transport Development on Saturday that public
transportation is the surest way to ease traffic congestion, which
has plagued China's major cities in recent years.
The document says the government should be the main investor in
construction projects in the public transportation sector. It calls
on the government to set up investment, subsidy and compensation
systems to promote its development.
The central government is also looking to subsidize public
transport enterprises to offset the burden of future increases in
petroleum prices.
The government will also do an annual audit and appraisal of
public transport enterprises' operations and implement a
performance-based subsidy system to reward those enterprises that
do well in the appraisals.
Qiu said the average speed of vehicles on Beijing's main roads
had fallen by half in the past decade, and that 60 percent of the
city's main intersections suffer from serious traffic
congestion.
"The rapid increase in the number of automobiles on the roads
has placed great pressure on Beijing's traffic conditions,
resources and environment," said Ji Lin, vice-mayor of Beijing.
"Treating the development of public transportation as a priority
is one of the city's long-term strategies."
Ji said the number of vehicles plying Beijing's streets has hit
2.82 million and is still increasing at the rapid rate of 1,000 new
cars per day.
"It is unrealistic to attempt to resolve the city's traffic jams
simply by widening roads because any effort to widen the roads
would lag behind the increase in automobiles," said Wang Fengwu, an
official with the Ministry of Construction.
Wang said the ministry wanted public transportation to account
for a third of the transportation available in the country's main
cities within the next five years.
At present, public transportation accounts for only about 10
percent.
Wang said the ministry was considering changing the traffic
signal system in some cities to favour public transportation.
For example, buses could get longer green lights at
intersections.
According to statistics from the World Bank, the average speed
of vehicles on the main roads between Beijing's second and third
ring roads during rush hours fell to 10 kilometre-per-hour (kph)
last year from 45 kph in 1994. That is slower than bicycles.
In 2003, the economic losses caused by traffic congestion
reached 250 billion yuan (US$31.25 billion), accounting for 2
percent of the year's GDP.
(China Daily December 4, 2006)