To own a car and drive to work is still a dream for millions of Chinese. But many drivers find themselves struggling with unendurable traffic jams every day.

Li Qian, who lives in northern Beijing's Tiantongyuan residential district, recently found a way to beat the congestion on her way to work every morning. Leaving her mid-size Buick at home, she rides the metro train.

"I do not like driving," Li said on a recent early morning commute to the inner city. "It's too stressful."

For her, the biggest headache in driving was the rush-hour traffic.

"It took about an hour-and-a-half from home to the office during the rush hour, although it is only a half-hour ride if traffic is smooth," said Li, 39, who used to get up at 6 am to avoid the traffic jams that routinely hit between 7 and 9.

Now she relies on the light rail every weekday to get to downtown Beijing, where she works as an archive specialist at a law firm.

Li is not alone. She said she knows about 20 other car owners in Tiantongyuan who have shifted to the light rail for their trips to inner Beijing.

With the four-car train departing Lishuiqiao Station every 10 minutes during rush hours, it takes Li just 25 minutes to arrive at her office in the Jianguomen business zone.

"It definitely will save time worth several years in my life," Li said.

Traffic officials hope the light rail will not only make the morning commute easier, but also help ease congestion on city roads.

Li's satisfaction reflects the government's recent call for a complete and sound public traffic system to help residents' daily commuting.

Government's plan

China is feverishly constructing roads and highways, but still cannot keep pace with the explosion in the number of private vehicles on the roads, leading to traffic jams sometimes lasting all day in urban centers.

Rapid development of the country's auto industry has aroused environmental concerns, but auto enterprises continue to report record sales.

While China's march to a car-dominated society seems inevitable, the authorities stress the priority development of public transportation services in urban regions.

The Ministry of Construction said in a detailed document that all cities should set up a sound public traffic network.

Within five years, buses nationwide should travel at least 20 kilometers per hour in urban areas. At present, buses in Beijing sometime crawl along at just 5 kilometers per hour during rush hours.

The ministry also stipulated that any two points in the main parts of major cities should be connected by a maximum 50-minute ride by public transportation. It also said there should be a bus stop every 300 meters in 70 percent of the main urban areas.

An official named Zhang from the ministry said it's a pressing and demanding task to achieve these goals.

"Chinese people are eager to own a car, which will continuously push up the traffic congestion," said Zhang, adding that the essence of the document is to stress "public transportation first" strategy.

Root for traffic jam

Wang Xiaoguang, a research fellow at the Macro-economic Studies Institute with the National Development and Reform Commission said it is wrong to equate "public transportation first" with "buses first."

"It will in turn exert a huge negative impact on China's modernization and urbanization," Wang said.

He said a "seriously" unreasonable layout of buildings and roads and unbalanced development of the traffic system are all to blame for traffic congestion.

Wang said city roads are just like parking lots during rush hours in China's big cities, which has been fueled by an increasing number of private automobiles.

The central government has made a huge investment in traffic systems, but the results turned out to be "hardly satisfactory," according to Wang.

For example, to alleviate traffic pressure, the Beijing municipal government has spent more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) annually since 2000 to upgrade local roads. From 1997 to 2002, Beijing's total road length has increased by more than 2,000 kilometers.

However, these efforts still cannot keep pace with the need for roads, which arises from Beijing's fast population growth and urban development.

Wang listed some "ailments" suffered by Chinese cities in their development, including a lack of a "sustainability" in city planning, an underestimation of the increasing number of private cars, and an unbalanced distribution of building blocks and roads. 

Auto spree

Auto production and sales increased at a rate of 50 percent over the past two years, and the trend is expected to continue for at least several more years. Beijing was the first city in the country to have 2 million vehicles, a figure it reached last year.

Expecting to have 3.5 million cars by 2008, just in time for the Summer Olympics, the city has been struggling since last year with traffic chaos linked to poor driving skills, bad road design and incessant repair work.

It is only a matter of time before China leaves the bicycle era for the auto age, said Chen Qingtai, deputy director of the Development Research Center under the State Council.

But Tsinghua University visiting scholar Zhang Jianyu said large cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, which have the largest numbers of automobiles, are suffering from severe pollution from exhaust emissions. And traffic jams are the problem that triggers the most complaints from city dwellers.

More arable land has given way to roads and parking lots to ease transportation bottlenecks and accommodate a rapidly increasing number of vehicles.

Statistics indicate motor vehicles account for one third of the country's total petroleum consumption, and China will rely more on foreign oil imports as the country's consumption already exceeds its production.

Fuel demands of autos nationwide, the State Council's Development and Research Centre predicts, will reach 138 million tons by 2010 and 256 million tons by 2020, accounting for 43 percent and 57 percent respectively of expected total petroleum use.

However, during the same period, China's petroleum production will stand at most 200 million tons, which means the country will rely more on foreign oil imports, cautioned officials of the Ministry of Land Resources (MLR).

"Petroleum is not only for driving, it is a basic production material of modern industrial society," said Zhang Dawei, director of MLR's strategic research centre. "How can we sacrifice basic needs of food, clothing and shelter for transportation only?"

Zhang Jianyu said he has already sensed the restraint of limited natural resources.

The growing use of cars in China is contributing to pollution, energy shortages, loss of arable land and serious traffic congestion, said Zhang.

He said large cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou may have a deeper feeling about the adverse effects of the auto industry, since auto emission has become a notorious source of pollutants like carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons.

Zhang quoted a World Bank report that stated China's auto-related pollution is getting worse. In the past 30 years, the incidence of TB (pulmonary tuberculosis) has doubled due to urban smog mainly contributed by automotive emissions.

Worse still, the State Environmental Protection Administration predicts that exhaust emissions from vehicles will account for 79 percent of China's urban air pollution by 2005.

(China Daily April 16, 2004)