Looking back on the 60-year transformation of traffic, it plays out just like a movie that illustrates how monumental the change has been during the past 6o Years in China.

Traffic in Beijing Before 1949



Traffic in Beijing around 1965


Traffic in Beijing in 1985


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Great pictures of the changes in Society though I think you need one of today!



It's too bad, wish China would be trying to create cities with an alternative to the traffic problems we have in the West, moving sidewalks, better public transportation and more emphasis on bikes again is needed I think.

China has a chance to plan out efficient transport systems. But they are not taking it. A big missed chance that they will regret. Messy roads will just make bottle necks and make nightmare taffics during ruch hour. Another issue is getting people to follow traffic laws. Speeding is fine with me, but people drive through red lights without care even then people are crossing the road on a green man light!

In Shanghai they enforce too much on speed with lots of speed cameras. You don't need cameras every kilometer of the highway really. Its alwasys funny to see crossing guards for adults at Shanghai railway station to stop them from crossing on a red man light. But they don't have guards to stop cars turning in driving right through pedestrians (that should have right of way with the green man light). Buses and trucks are the worse and they will run over pedestrians crossing the road on a green man light. Biker also are a problem riding themselves into cars because they just seem to not understand how the trafic works.

All in all Shanghai has some of the shittiest traffic I've seen. Subways in Shanghai can also be a nightmare of being too overcrowded. You have to push and shove just to get in or out of the train.

Moroes Wrote:
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> China has a chance to plan out efficient transport
> systems. But they are not taking it. A big
> missed chance that they will regret.

Yeah, with teh growth this late in the developement of the world very few places have this chance... I keep hearing rumours of developing moving sidewalks around third ring road in Beijing but seems they are just that as nothing seems to be happening to get it started.

There's a number of cities around the world that have developed non-car centric cities, cleaner, faster to get around and less hassle... get the cars off the road, double the buses, add express buses to go to the other side of the city and double the subways. Roads would be cleaner, faster and more convinient and people would be healthier. Too bad....