Beijing (CNS) -- The Beijing metro office posted suggestions on the crowdedness of different periods during the morning traffic peak, recommending that passengers shift from the very crowded time range to relatively unoccupied periods, Monday.
According to a recent survey released by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport, from 7am to 9am, 67,000 of all 90,000 passengers entering urban Beijing choose the metro as their way of transportation, causing a huge 300,000 daily load on the Batong line metro, the most crowded of all in Beijing.
Since September 5, the Tongzhou Bei Yuan Station on the Batong line will adopt a trial measure to monitor the crowdedness of five peak periods, reporting every 30 minutes from 6:30am to 9:30am by scales of "normal," "crowded," and "very crowded." The measuring methods will be enhanced with other ways such as regulative boards, distributed guides, and other flow-limiting measures.
The Beijing administration has been encouraging environmentally friendly transportation for years. For example, they promote the use of public transportation instead of private cars. Statistics show that the first half of the year recorded 3.42 billion public passengers. This is about 40.9% of the traffic loads, 1.2% more than the same period in 2010. The biggest daily load reached 22.73 million, while that of the metros was up to 5.5 million. Crowdedness is not a new word in Beijing residents' daily life.
More consistent efforts will be taken to promote green transportation, mainly in terms of metro and ground public transportation system planning and construction, assisted by bicycle lane pavements. A goal was set to modify the rates of public transportation, bicycling, and private cars in the central urban zone to 50%, 18%, and under 25% by 2015.
Passengers lining up in the experiment unit told CNS that they will take into consideration the crowdedness data on the board conservatively. One of them, surnamed Lin, expressed his worry that though the idea will help spread the crowding over a wider time range, the crowd is still there and the crowdedness won't change much. Lin usually leaves his residence around 6:30am and takes the bus to the metro station. He can only miss the peak by getting up earlier, which does not seem feasible at all.
A heated discussion about the attempt went on among 60,000 netizens on Weibo. One netizen even mocked the vain idea by saying: "You will get used to it. The most important thing is to squeeze into the train, rather than spend meaningless time thinking about getting rid of the crowd."
The municipal metro office told the press that further decisions on metro management would be made upon expert evaluations and specific modification advice.
