Traffic in Beijing

The traffic here in China is pretty crazy. In Beijing, there are 6 million vehicles for a city of 22 million people that is much denser than western cities. On the ring roads there is traffic most of the day in certain spots even though people have access to the largest subway in the world and most services are pretty accessible by walking.

Traffic in Beijing on Ring Road – by The Overhead Wire

Because of the density of the city and the increase in the number of cars, Beijing has strict rules about who can drive in the city and on what days. For people that don’t live in Beijing, their vehicles are restricted from entering the urban core at all. So you can’t just road trip from another city. We heard that people park on the outskirts and take transit in, or just take high speed rail (I’ll chat about this more in a future post) and rely on the subway.

But if you live in the city, the last number of your license plate determines which day of the work week you’re not allowed to drive and they have roving patrols of traffic police and cameras to catch people who violate the rules.

Traffic Police look for License Plates – By The Overhead Wire

Our tour guide told us the fine is about 100 RMB every four hours. So in theory over a 24 hour day you could get ticketed numerous times which adds up quickly on the day you’re not supposed to drive.

That said, owning a car is expensive as well. Not only is a car expensive to purchase with extra taxes and fees, drivers have to get a license plate which costs a good amount (~$570) and subject to a lottery system.

Even with a great subway and lots of restrictions on cars, traffic is still a mess. It makes sense just to take transit or walk. Of course many people have two or three wheelers that are allowed in the very wide bike lanes, and they seem to be everywhere all at once and to a certain extent much more efficient like bikes!

Two wheelers everywhere – by The Overhead Wire

I’m sure some of you knew this already but it’s interesting and new to me. I think we can take little things that work from places around the world and learn from them.

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