Diagnosis on traffic congestion in Beijing(2)

The phenomenon of more cars but fewer roads had appeared at least in 2003. Beijing Traffic Management Bureau had announced that year that over 90 percent of roads in Beijing had been saturated or super-saturated in the morning and evening peak hours.

"Under the current traffic control measures, the road network of Beijing can only accommodate 6.7 million motor vehicles. The number of registered vehicles of Beijing will reach 7 million by 2015, substantially exceeding the maximum capacity of the road network," director of Beijing Transportation Research Center Guo Jifu had concluded in August 2010 that the average speed of vehicles will be below 15 kilometers per hours in Beijing if no measures of control and guidance is taken.

In addition to traffic control measures, Beijing is making efforts to construct more roads.

According to the "Annual Report of Beijing Traffic Development in 2011," both the urban expressway sand trunk roads will reach 300 kilometers in 2012. However, the phenomenon of parking on the roads and road construction is nibbling the precious road space.

According to data released by the Urban Construction and Environmental Protection Committee of Beijing Municipal People's Congress in 2011, Beijing has a total of 2.5 million parking spaces, far below the amount of registered vehicles, which led to the phenomenon of parking on roads.

In addition, people are also plagued by the construction of subways and roads maintenance.

As of Dec. 9, 2012, Beijing has a total of about 22,000 roads maintenance events, about 65 per day. "Nothing can do but wait" is the first feeling of many car owners.