[Towered]

news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2006...oly2008chn

Beijing planning to build world's biggest subway

Mon Nov 20, 1:18 AM ET

BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing is planning to build the world's biggest subway and dramatically expand its bus network as part of efforts to combat the city's fast-increasing traffic grid-lock, state press has said.

The Chinese capital will expand its subway system to 273 kilometers (169 miles) by 2010 and to 561 kilometers by 2020, surpassing London as the city with the world's most extensive underground, the reports said.

The city's current metro rail system is 115 kilometers, with 54 kilometers of subway.

The city's newly approved five-year public transport plan will shift the focus from building roads for car use to constructing a high-speed public transport system to ease the growing grid-lock, the China News Service said.

"When Beijing citizens are in the city center, we want them to be able to get to places faster by using public transport than by using a car," the report quoted Liu Xiaoming, vice head of the city's traffic department, as saying.

Besides completing five new rail lines by 2010, including an already announced light rail connecting the city center to the airport, Beijing will also build 300 kilometers of specialized bus lanes, Liu said.

The China News Service report did not detail the costs for such a plan.

But by 2010, it is hoped that 40 percent or more of the city's daily commuting will be done on public transport, with up to six million passengers commuting by rail and over 13 million travelling by bus daily, it said.

Although Beijing currently only boasts two subway lines and two light rail tracks, three more underground lines are under construction and slated to be completed by 2008 when the city hosts the
Olympic Games, the China Daily said.

Beijing's efforts to build public transport has greatly lagged behind the city's construction of new highways, ring roads and widened streets to meet the demands of the 2.75 million cars currently plying city streets.

"Motorized vehicle use is growing rapidly and by 2010 it is estimated that there will be 3.5 million vehicles in the city," Gu Shengli, another city traffic official told the China New Service.

"This will bring the city huge traffic pressures that cannot be alleviated through the mere expansion and building of new roads."

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And Toronto? Yeah, no vision and zero political will to create one from all levels of government. I'm so tired of this spiel here - it's like groundhog day. Stick a fork in this place.

 

[Canuck 36]

Please, you want to compare the political situation in China to Canada.

Need one point out the differences in government structures, populations, and global influence.

 

[unimaginative2]

To be fair, I don't think you need global influence to build a subway line. Canada's a much, much, much richer country than China per capita, and Toronto's not that much smaller than Beijing.

 

[Canuck 36]

Beijing and Shanghai are China's showcase cities. The government has been pouring money into them to mark their arrival on the world stage.

 

[TdotTrickyRicky]

I think this is great, the kind of mega project megalomania I can get behind. Too bad chinese cities have been systematically using big planning ideas in an arguably destructive manner to destroy the established settlement patterns and character of their cities. Having better transit services might make all those millions of low-income people displaced to slab residential buildings in far flung ring-road suburbs who can't even dream of owning a car feel a little better after their established neighbourhoods were flattened in the name of progress.

 

[ganjavih]

Please, you want to compare the political situation in China to Canada.

The differences in political situations of the two countries is precisely why nothing gets done here. It's one of the faults of our short-term oriented, four-year cycle democratic system.

 

[Antiloop33rpm]

^Lots of things can get done our short term political cycles. Tax cuts, bigger oil industries, highways, etc. The problem is that most voters don't care about public transit at the momment. Canada is a car society. This is what most people still want. And until there is a desire by a majority of citizens to change these habits and start to fund public transit, nothing will be done and no politician is going to put forward bold visions because they know voters dont care about that at the momment.

Blaming politicians is an easy excuse. If a large segment of society wants better public transit and wants to push this agenda forward, they had better be prepared to work for it.

 

[spmarshall]

The cash-rich federal govement is looking at even more tax cuts, so less money will go to infrastructure and cities and all that important stuff.

I hope they are defeated with the budget vote, and that Canadians will see past easy money.

 

[EnviroTO]

Of course the big announcement has more to do with the fact they were on a road building spree and like all urban road spending sprees it creates an auto dependent culture leading to complete gridlock. Atlanta which went on a freeway building spree is now caught in a vicious freeway widening cycle where the main freeway will need to be widened to 26 lanes to meet capacity and city-wide traffic is approaching the levels of Los Angeles. Beijing will have to create a huge subway system to undo the problems they created with their road building.

 

[Archivistower]

We could do much more here in the absence of any property or human rights or accountability. Imagine how easy it might be to build kilometres of subway if it essentially didn't matter if you ripped down people's houses, if five people a day died in the tunnels, and it was impossible ever to do a real accounting of the cost.

Good luck to them, though.

 

[Degnaw]

Beijing actually has a significant amount of elevated lines, yet all of its lines are crowded beyond recognition. I stayed there for a week, taking the subway every day; I only got a seat once, at 5:40 AM heading for the airport.

And Beijing's traffic congestion has nothing to do with not enough subways, it's more of a mindset issue (Once i can afford a car, i'm off that subway forever!). Not to mention that new highways are paved almost every day . . .

 

[Bogtrotter]

Did Washington DC exploit workers when they significantly expanded their wonderful subway? That is nonsense.

 

[wyliepoon]

Of course the big announcement has more to do with the fact they were on a road building spree and like all urban road spending sprees it creates an auto dependent culture leading to complete gridlock.

... and Beijing still is on a highway building spree. China recently announced its plan to develop an American Interstate-style expressway system. The main feature of this system is 7 expressways radiating out of Beijing which will connect it to every part of the country (including an undersea highway to Taiwan, which it claims as part of China but does not rule).

China's 2020 highway plan (Beijing is the city marked with a red star)

Too bad chinese cities have been systematically using big planning ideas in an arguably destructive manner to destroy the established settlement patterns and character of their cities.

Yes, and quite sad. I've seen whole blocks of old low-rise neighbourhoods razed in Shanghai just for the sake of building subways. Building our Bloor-Danforth subway may have required the razing of some buildings, but not whole neighbourhoods. It's all part of China's strategy to replace old neighbourhoods with high-rise towers, and what better way to start by transforming them into subway construction sites first.

 

[Towered]

The problem is that most voters don't care about public transit at the momment. Canada is a car society. This is what most people still want. And until there is a desire by a majority of citizens to change these habits and start to fund public transit, nothing will be done and no politician is going to put forward bold visions because they know voters dont care about that at the momment.

I can't speak for all of Canada, but here in Toronto there is evidence that the mindset is finally changing. There was a poll in the Star in the days after the municipal election stating that something like 46% of the population feels very strongly that Toronto needs rapid transit expansion to deal with ever increasing gridlock. Only a small minority felt it wasn't a serious issue. And with the constant related articles the Star pumps out and things like the Soberman report, awareness of the potential disaster if we do nothing very soon is only increasing.

It's just sad that the governments will be the last ones to notice.

 

[EnviroTO]

And Beijing's traffic congestion has nothing to do with not enough subways, it's more of a mindset issue (Once i can afford a car, i'm off that subway forever!). Not to mention that new highways are paved almost every day . . .

Why would they want off the subways if the subways were plentiful and not so packed? The new highways paved every day, the lack of seats and a lack of a reasonable transit system would be the motivator.