Hi,
I just thought I'd share this news piece about a 50 lane....yes 50 lanes, traffic jam in china. There is a new check point that reduces the 50 lanes into 20. Even 20 seems like nothing we have in the US. But with China just finding it's legs in their capitalistic economy, 50 lanes seem like a serious unintended outcome. The numbers are staggering. Millions were stranded after a holiday weekend. Besides the costs involved in accommodating the number of cars added to roadways, I am deeply concerned about the health and environmental impact.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/10/09/thousands-stuck-traffic-jam-beijing-china-highway/73644000/
Comments?
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ReplyDeleteThis puts the "carmagedden" that LA faces when I-405 closes to shame. This is absolutely shocking to see. TALK ABOUT A ROAD THAT NEEDS A DIET!
ReplyDeleteI, too, find the implications of this amount of road infrastructure has on health and the environment, as well as the social and economic impacts of great concern. How does something of this size get funded and what are the costs to residents, I'm sure it's a pretty penny. While this is a response largely due to an influx of visitors to the city, but imagine if there was an emergency on the freeway in such congestion?
I cannot help but wonder if the government, in China, takes into account and prepares for how emergency vehicles are supposed to respond in large amount of congestion.
Super Interesting! Great find, thanks Janelle!
WHOA! I never knew such roads even exist. This is so bad on so many levels. The environment is not a major concern when it comes to this road since the amount of cars (pollution) will remain the same whether it is on this road or throughout the city. However this is terrible for safety. Imagine having to switch sometimes 49 lanes to take an exit. Just imagine the frustration a driver would go through. The road is not even striped and lacks proper safety measures. and having it taper to less than half, no matter how long the taper distance, is an extremely poor design. Yeah and like Alexys mentioned, how would an emergency vehicle ever make it to a crash? how would cars move forward after a crash? This road is just so wrong. I would be interested in seeing what measures the government would take to solve this issue.
ReplyDeleteThis goes to show the extreme influence that road widening has on induced demand. China has truly embraced cars as a main mode of transit; from 1885 to 2005, the number of cars on road exploded from 19,000 to 62 million cars. This number is projected to be 200 million in 2020.From those stats it's no surprise that China's roads are jammed even with 50 lanes.
ReplyDeleteThere's a video giving a brief overview on China's superhighway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTrg9fTJvmA
If they continue with their superhighway route, I would predict that the issue will only be further aggravated. China is investing $240 billion into this project so it doesn't look like they will be moving away from their car explosion anytime too soon.