I won’t be home for dinner – China’s staggering traffic jam

Early morning traffic crosses the Huanhuayuan bridge across the Jialing in southwest China's Chongqing municipality on July 28, 2010.

China’s incredible economic expansion is causing some growing pains. The latest symptom is a 62-mile traffic jam that is at its 10th day and counting. Officials say that it could last until… mid-September. The usual factors are at work: construction, road closures, population growth and a rapidly growing number of cars on the road - Chinese bought 13.6 million new vehicles in 2009. Chinese authorities have dispatched police to help speed things up – currently a glacial third of a mile per day. To pass the time drivers are playing cards and exercising capitalism by setting up vending stands on the road. Are these sorts of titanic traffic jams the shape of things to come? What can cities do to solve the problem of growing traffic congestion?

China’s incredible economic expansion is causing some growing pains. The latest symptom is a 62-mile traffic jam that is at its 10th day and counting. Officials say that it could last until… mid-September. The usual factors are at work: construction, road closures, population growth and a rapidly growing number of cars on the road - Chinese bought 13.6 million new vehicles in 2009. Chinese authorities have dispatched police to help speed things up – currently a glacial third of a mile per day. To pass the time drivers are playing cards and exercising capitalism by setting up vending stands on the road. Are these sorts of titanic traffic jams the shape of things to come? What can cities do to solve the problem of growing traffic congestion?

Guest:

John Fischer, Assistant General Manager in charge of Transportation Operations, Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT)