China's nine-day traffic jam stretches 100km

[suma25]

BEIJING (AFP) – Thousands of vehicles were bogged down Monday in a more than 100-kilometre (62-mile) traffic jam leading to Beijing that has lasted nine days and highlights China's growing road congestion woes. The Beijing-Tibet expressway slowed to a crawl on August 14 due to a spike in traffic by cargo-bearing heavy trucks heading to the capital, and compounded by road maintenance work that began five days later, the Global Times said. The state-run newspaper said the jam between Beijing and Jining city had given birth to a mini-economy with local merchants capitalising on the stranded drivers' predicament by selling them water and food at inflated prices. That stretch of highway linking Beijing with the northern province of Hebei and the Inner Mongolia region has become increasingly prone to massive jams as the capital of more than 20 million people sucks in huge shipments of goods. Traffic slowed to a snail's pace in June and July for nearly a month, according to earlier press reports. The latest clog has been worsened by the road improvement project, made necessary by highway damage caused by a steady increase in cargo traffic, the Global Times said. China has embarked in recent years on a huge expansion of its national road system but soaring traffic periodically overwhelms the grid. The congestion was expected to last into mid-September as the road project will not be finished until then, the newspaper said. The roadway is a major artery for the supply of produce, coal and other goods to Beijing. Pics http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100823/sc_afp/chinaroadtraffic

[yoda]

wow, read that people are selling water at inflated prices to those stuck in traffic. this is crazy.

[punjabi_khota]

So wait, these people sit in their cars for 9 days ? :hmmmm2:

[suma25]

no.its the traffic jam that lasted for nine days with traffic moving slowly.

[Clarke]

When ur running on steroids, the arteries can get clogged

[Ram]

This is what happens when you want first world mobility, but have only third world infrastructure. Unless we take drastic action, I can see such headlines replicated in Indian city after Indian city, time after time, going forward.

[kabira]

^actually our rail network is awesome. I have been to many road trips, I have hardly had traffic jams. Been from Ahmedabad to Delhi, no jams there. Most of the time when I am in car, highway is empty.

[Ram]

^actually our rail network is awesome. I have been to many road trips, I have hardly had traffic jams. Been from Ahmedabad to Delhi, no jams there. Most of the time when I am in car, highway is empty.

China has far far more cars than we do. In fact, last year something extremely symbolic happened. China overtook the united states as the country that sold the most number of cars to it's consumers for the first time. It really scares mecto think how our country, specifically our cities, will look in 15 - 20 years. The pace of the growth of our infrastructure is no match to the frenetic pace of urbanization.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

It really scares mecto think how our country' date=' specifically our cities, will look in 15 - 20 years. The pace of the growth of our infrastructure is no match to the frenetic pace of urbanization.[/quote'] india is approx 30 years behind china i terms of infrastructure. forget beijing and shanghai, indian metros cant even compare to cities like guangzhou:

[achilles]

And they want to make Mumbai into Shanghai and emulate everything the Chinese do. Lawl, how about a reality check? China, in their mad rush to match America, are doing a ridiculous job at curtailing their own "monster" and India is set on the same rout. Look at the amount of natural disasters that China keep having. A human is successful when he accepts himself the way he is, works in accordance with his capacity, respects his abilities and builds himself on what he has.

[DomainK]

wow, read that people are selling water at inflated prices to those stuck in traffic. this is crazy.

Reminds me of the Mumbai train blasts. I was stuck on the road with a serious traffic jam after the blasts and local residents had come out on the road offering food and water for free. Even the restaurants had come out offering food and water (at a cost to those who wanted to pay, free for those who did not). That was a horrible day and could have been far worse but for those sympathetic people. And that was the case in most places, just not one or two areas.

[Desi Cartman]

Due to rain last week a friend of mine took 4 hrs to commute from Noida to saket ... we are getting there :aha: