China’s Monster Traffic Jam Vanishes

August 25, 2010

The jam started Aug. 14.

The mammoth traffic jam that left thousands of truckers sitting in gridlock for more than a week has vanished.

China’s state-run media has for days reported that construction and a sudden spike in big-rigs created a traffic jam stretching 62 miles along National Expressway 110. The highway is a major trucking route.

The backup started Aug. 14 and was compounded by breakdowns and crashes. The story made headlines around the world, with news stories popping up as recently as yesterday.

But AFP and MSNBC are reporting the traffic jam has evaporated, just like that. Traffic remains heavy — as many as 17,000 big-rigs use the road through Beijing each day — but it is moving.

“The situation has gotten much better recently. I don’t know why,” a gas station attendant in Huailai county, roughly halfway from the capital to Xinghe county in Inner Mongolia, told AFP. The news service had reporters drive 260 kilometers (about 162 miles) along the road on Wednesday; they found nothing out of the ordinary. Adrienne Mong of MSNBC made the same discovery.

“Virtually overnight, local authorities had managed to disperse the congestion – about 120 miles northwest from Beijing – so by the time we reached the area, all we encountered were the garden-variety traffic jams here and there,” she wrote.

Traffic along the highway is notoriously bad, as it is throughout Beijing, where a recent survey by IBM found the daily commute can be so hellish that seven out of 10 drivers have at some point said “screw this” and returned home. China’s traffic woes have been exacerbated by an explosive growth in auto sales; some 13 million new cars were sold in China last year, making it the world’s biggest automobile market.

No one’s sure how the traffic jam cleared up so quickly, as officials at the Beijing traffic management bureau weren’t available for comment. Mong notes there’s a good chance the gridlock will return because the construction is expected to continue through mid September.

China’s Monster Traffic Jam Vanishes | Autopia | Wired.com


However....



Thousands of vehicles stuck in 120km China traffic jam
Traffic jam in Beijing (2 September 2010) The boom in road building in China has failed to put an end to the infamous traffic jams

More than 10,000 vehicles are stuck in a 120km (75-mile) traffic jam on China's Beijing to Tibet motorway.

A state television reporter said the gridlocked section of the road, in the north-eastern region of Inner Mongolia, resembled a "big car park".

The majority of the vehicles stuck in the jam, which began on Tuesday, are coal trucks heading to the capital.

A 100km traffic jam that had lasted nine days on the same motorway was cleared just over a week ago.

The authorities say roadworks are to blame for the latest gridlock.

The motorway is among China's busiest, as Beijing's population of more than 20 million requires massive quantities of goods.

For instance, a huge number of coal lorries have to travel daily from Inner Mongolia in order to ensure a constant supply for the country's coal-burning power plants, which provide more than half of its electricity.

The BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing says that in recent years, there has been a boom in road building across China, with the country spending billions of dollars on improving its infrastructure.

But critics say that China is still struggling to keep up with the demands of its growing economy, and that huge traffic jams could be here to stay.

BBC News - Thousands of vehicles stuck in 120km China traffic jam