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Motorization in China at the dawn of the 21st century: Lessons from Beijing and Shanghai

Panel: Panel 8: Transport and mobility

Author:
Julien Allaire, LEPII-EPE /CNRS, FRANCE

Abstract

During the 1990’s, Chinese government has chosen to build up a national car industry and to promote automobile development. At that time automobile was collective, it was used as taxi or for enterprise staffs. But since 2001, personal cars has increased dramatically and the richest Chinese Metropolis have been quickly motorizing. That results in an important issue for energy consumption in transportation sector.

But, because of the density population and despite of high road construction rate, Chinese developing cities meet a serious lack of urban space for motorization. Authorities noticed that automobile couldn’t answer to urban mobility needs. As public transport investment has been frozen during 1990’s, more and more mass transit projects have been approved by the central government last years. From Metro to Bus Rapid Transit, every options are developed in the country. Public transport knows a revival in a country where it was particularly underdeveloped.

In this article, we will try to show the rapid changes of Chinese urban transport strategy due to dramatic increase of vehicle fleet in cities with high population density. We will look at the two models proposed by the country’s two most developed metropolises: Beijing and Shanghai. Those two cities are both facing congestion but for different level of motorization. Beijing is the most motorized Chinese city, when Shanghai has kept a low motorisation level thanks to an auction system of registration plates. But both are meeting the space constraint with motorization.

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