Olympic traffic alert

During a recent trip to an exhibition in Amsterdam, several friends asked me whether I could get them tickets for the forthcoming 2008 Olympic Games.

Well the answer is, “Yes, absolutely!” As an old Chinese saying by Confucius goes, “How happy we are to have friends from afar!” I have no doubt that my friends will enjoy watching the Games, but to be honest I am concerned how they will fare in the traffic when they step out of the stadium?

Beijing’s premier headache
“Olympic traffic and the environment are huge challenges,” admits Sun Weide, deputy director of the Beijing Organizing Committee. “The number of cars here has been increasing rapidly. There are 2.8 million cars in Beijing now, and we’re adding a thousand cars a day.”

Recently Beijing slipped 10 places to number 14 in a quality of life ranking of Chinese cities, with bad transportation rating as the biggest complaint, ahead of pollution. A new report suggests almost 90% of Beijing’s roads are saturated, and whenever there is an emergency or traffic accident, the streets quickly resemble a giant car park.

What are the solutions?
We have reported frequently about the Chinese government’s efforts to improve transport conditions before the Olympics add a million visitors to an already exploding urban population.

Let’s take a look at some of the solutions.

Solutions based on new technology
1. China’s Beidou navigation system can not only pinpoint precise locations of moving vehicles, but also tell drivers real-time traffic conditions on routes to their destinations. It will need the government, ITS software and hardware vendors to work closely together to ensure that Beidou’s promise is exploited during the Games. The system is now primarily used by the military and requires special receivers. During the Games, official Olympic vehicles will be fitted with Beidou receivers so their progress and location can be tracked by Beijing’s Transport Bureau. The system is also due to be used in 2010 at the Shanghai World Trade Expo.

2. Beijing’s authorities have upgraded the weather warning equipment with Vaisala’s automatic road weather station network.

This move is designed to provide accurate and versatile information on weather conditions to traffic operators, so they can manage the traffic flow effectively during and after this summer’s Olympics.

3. Nissan will create a city-wide navigation system called “Star Wings”, which will transmit real-time traffic data to drivers via a wireless network to monitors in cars.

I don’t doubt the abilities of Nissan’s technology. But Japanese car company’s goal is to put its technology into a fifth of Beijing’s 3 million cars by the start of the Games. This would, according to Nissan’s preliminary tests, cut down on the city’s traffic congestion by up to 20%, by dispersing traffic more evenly throughout the city. But with only around 5% of the Chinese market, Nissan can’t reach that goal if the technology is limited to its own cars.

The plan is for Nissan to pay for the development and installation of the systems, and Beijing to pick up the costs for monitoring and transmitting the data. Star Wings will be installed in Nissan products, as well as rental, taxi and other fleets, and possibly into cars made by other companies that agree to the program.

Administrative solutions
1. Special Olympic traffic lanes will be set-up on key routes in the Chinese capital during the Beijing Games to ensure that athletes beat the congestion and make it to venues on time.

This is certainly a good solutions for the athletes and officials, but is almost certainly a poor solution for Beijing’s citizens and tourists, since it is likely to cause more traffic jams in the non-special lanes zones.

2. Beijing’s citizens have started to participate in a compulsory plan to restrict access to the city according to the license plate number of the vehicle. Under the compulsory system, vehicles whose license plates end with odd or even numbers can only drive on the roads every other day, so theoretically the number of vehicles on the roads in the city can be reduced by half. Anyone who doesn’t obey faces a fine up to RMB 200 ($28).
This is undoubtedly a good solution for those who don’t one vehicles, but it is an unpopular measure, which is already causing many difficulties for vehicle owners

These are my personal views, based on the traffic measures developed for the Olympics and beyond.

I would be interested to learn whether you share my views on their prospects for success.

There are currently no comments.