Americans who think U.S. traffic is bad should forget about getting behind the wheel in china. About 10 days to the Chinese road traffic jam, the gridlock extended for about 60 miles. The gridlock has clogged a highway between Beijing and Zhangjiakou and is expected to last until road construction in Beijing is finished around the middle of September. China drivers trapped within the road traffic jam watch about a kilometer of the countryside go by in a day. Some drivers trapped within the road traffic haven’t emerged for five days. Demand for coal to feed power plants and China’s emerging consumer society has generated a surge in freight traffic that has been identified as the catalyst for the monumental gridlock.
Chinese roads can’t get caught up with economic climate
Drivers in china have learned to expect congested zones. However, the current congestion is well-nigh intolerable, even by Chinese standards. The Wall Street Journal reports that road construction began the traffic jam Aug. 14 in China’s Heibei Province on a major highway leading to Beijing. Congestion worsened as some cars collided and others broke down. The road traffic jam is expected to last as long as the construction project-about a month. Gridlock on this highway has become the norm as the capital city’s population of 20 million consumes more goods.
Demand for coal professional clogs trucking routes
A principal contributor to China’s road traffic jam conundrum is the trucks shipping coal that is burned for power to drive the world’s fastest-growing economy. An analysis by Bloomberg said that Inner Mongolia Province northwest of Beijing has emerged as China’s leading coal producer, supplanting Shanxi Province. An epidemic of mining accidents in Shanxi, an established coal-producing region with extensive railway transportation, led to a mass closure of mines by the government. A rail transport network up to the task of shipping Inner Mongolia’s growing coal production hasn’t yet been built. To ship the coal to power plants in southern China, suppliers have no choice however to truck their cargo through Beijing to port cities.
A crash course in economic capitalism
Drivers stranded within the Chinese traffic jam coped in different ways. NPR reports that road rage has been absent as individuals killed time by sleeping, taking walks or playing cards and chess. Local villagers, zigzagging between automobiles on bikes, reaped a windfall selling noodles, box lunches and snacks. The Chinese traffic jam provided an old-fashioned capitalist lesson in supply and demand. Drivers became dependent on the locals for their food and water. Accusations of price-gouging were common. Bottles of water were marked up 1,000 percent. Instant noodles that cost 3 yuan (45 cents) within the store were going for three times that.
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Wall Street Journal
blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2010/08/24/chinese-traffic-jam-stretches-60-miles-ten-days/
Bloomberg
businessweek.com/news/2010-08-24/chinese-demand-for-coal-spurs-9-day-traffic-jam-on-expressway.html
NPR
npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129395326
