The performance of an effective transport system in major cities has been the rationale underpinning the formulation of policies that catalyse a transport system’s operations (Brussel, Zuidgeest, Pfeffer, & Van Maarseveen, 2019). However, many cities are enduring challenges that come along with continuous dynamic events in the transport system, with a tremendous increase in population and demand for it. In this regard, an effective transport system involves maintenance of the transport network, accessibility, reduced transport costs, regulated traffic, feasible and clear policies, and modern integration of technology in transport, among many others. Beijing is one of the most rapidly growing metropolitans in the world, with a current population of approximately 22.3 million people. It is the capital city and second-largest city of China (Wang, 2019).
For quite a long time, the transport system in Beijing has been a pressing issue for the government and the residents. The fact that Beijing is globally recognized as the city with the most rapid economic growth and transport system performance is still underestimated. The Municipal government has greatly invested in the transport system by developing transportation infrastructure, however, traffic congestions are worsening and the area remains with high traffic (Zong, & Yuan, 2014). The exceptional aspect of Beijing is that it provides the main mainland hub for air, road and rail transportation, Therefore, the report will provide critical analysis of the current performance of the Beijing transport system and further proposes a plan and a policy in addressing some of the prevailing issues in the city of Beijing.
The largest airport and rail hub is located in Beijing, with standard road networks linking other areas. Beijing has two airports for passengers: the Capital International Airport, situated to the northeast of Tiananmen Square in the city, and Daxing Airport, which is approximately 33 miles from Capital International Airport (Brombal, Moriggi, & Marcomini, 2017). The CIA majorly carries out fights internationally or domestically. The CIA is the most well-known airport passengers prefer to use when travelling. Across the Asia-Pacific region, the CIA dominates by being the only airport with three runways, three terminals, and two towers for control (Hu et al., 2015). In 2017, the airport provided services for passengers exceeding 95.8 million, which shows a growth of 1.5% from the preceding year, 2016. This was another record among other previous records achieved by the same firm.
Figure 1: Source CAPA – Centre for Aviation and Beijing Capital International Airport reports.
In 2009, Beijing established an operational plan for traffic ground routes to facilitate the new Beijing Daxing Airport activities. The opening of the Daxing airport is scheduled to start operations in September 2019. The report in one of the Beijing newspapers, known as the Mirror, shows that the expressway airport will be available in May for traffic. The projected traffic in May 2019 will be controlled by using the alternative means of the Xiang’an-Beijing high-speed railway.
The construction of the international Daxing Airport commenced in 2014. It was mainly constructed to minimize the congestion affecting the Beijing Capital International Airport. There is an increased rate of people going in and outside the country. Therefore, the new Daxing International Airport will complement the CIA by offering flight services for goods and services. Daxing airport will offer service for passengers for 72 million passenger journeys, Cargo metric tons of about 2 million and 630,000 departures (Yang, Veeneman, & De Jong, 2018). However, in the long-term for this project is estimated that the new airport will provide transport services for over 100 million passengers annually, with landings and takeoffs amounting to 880,000.
Beijing road network
The road network in Beijing city has greatly expanded, taking the dimension of loop-lines. Currently, the city has only six ring roads. The first Ring Road has gone extinct, and the second Ring Road network goes through the central regions of Beijing city, capturing four districts. The third Ring Road goes through the city’s heart, i.e., through the CBD and various diplomatic communities (ITF-OECD, 2019). The fourth Ring Road covers a distance of eight kilometers from the center of Beijing city. The fifth Ring is approximately ten kilometres from the city’s centre and connects several suburban areas. The sixth Ring Road stretches a length of at least 19 km to the remote parts away from the CBD. In the last three decades, the traffic structure of Beijing has tremendously changed, whereby the ownership of private cars has dramatically increased. Public transport usage has grown a little high but shows a proportionate reduction. The use of bicycles has also reduced (Zhao, 2014). By the fact that most residents in the city have shifted to private car ownership. The city is vulnerable to traffic, especially at off-peak hours.
Figure 2: A COMPARISON OF TRAVEL MODE SPLITS IN BEIJING
Source: Beijing Municipal Committee of Transport, 2019
The population around Beijing is densely populated, which leads to traffic jams that normally happen at around 18:00 and 08:00. Consequently, there is a significant delay in moving from one point to another. The local government had taken the initiative to encourage people to travel using public means instead of relying on personal cars.
In Beijing, the number of motor vehicle owners has tremendously increased over the last 20 years. Since the city is a center of attraction, many families have relocated to go and stay in the urban centers due to other factors that include better social amenities and employment seeking, among others. Most people in the city have better jobs with good salaries. Therefore, the population in the city has high purchasing power and can readily buy a personal vehicle to get to a job in time. The city’s environment also contributes to an individual’s reason to buy a private car. The rationale behind this aspect is that the city has expanded and moved from one place to another, requiring a means of transport (Liu et al., 2015). Most public means have stations that might be away from workplaces, especially trains, which are inflexible. With the rapid economic growth. The city of Beijing is likely to face devastating consequences because of rapid population growth and increased rates of personal ownership of cars (Zhang, Wang, & Li, 2012).
Another aspect contributing to the great ownership of private cars is that the cost of buying a new car is below the standardized real cost. In this regard, they are cheaper and easy to access. China is among most countries that manufacture Motor vehicles, therefore natives staying within the country can access cheap and quality cars. Consequently, there is much implication in the city, many cars course traffic and increases the fuel consumption rate. The city’s congestion cost has a relatively huge impact on Beijing’s lifestyle. However, the government had imposed some constraints on individuals with personal cars. They include ownership taxation, parking space, garaging requirements, fuel taxation, vehicle quotas, and restrictions on vehicle standards. These policies have been seen working; however, they are insufficient to minimise congestion and heavy traffic in city centres. For example, in 2009, the Chinese government imposed a policy that individuals with personal cars are entitled to use them for only one day a week. Most families ignored these policies by buying extra cars to cater to the days of the week.
The private and public sectors in the transport system have conflicts that have lasted since the early 1990s. This scenario has put a challenge on transportation managers and planners. The origin of these conflicts is mainly the preferential implementation of policies favouring the public sector rather than the two sectors. Between 2000 and 2005, Beijing made a massive expenditure on infrastructure, constituting 27% of the investment. Subsequently, the transport sector developed more rapidly with a better and sounder network. Modes of traffic were boosted, and new technology was used to make it more effective and efficient. The intensified competition between private cars and public vehicles for road space has been a worrying issue in Beijing.
Another challenge that tends to bring about complexities in the management of the transport system in Beijing is the aspect of a mixture of bicycle and automobile traffic. Bicycles are a prevalent means for moving a shorter distance and have flexibility when used. However, Beijing has a compact population with various means of road transport. Some of the managers and planners in Beijing are working towards reducing the number of bicycles used in the CBD and other city areas to ease congestion. This indicates an increased rate of space competition in the city. In most cases, motor vehicles must stop or slow down to avoid collision with a passing bicycle. The stoppages lower the city’s smooth traffic flow (Zhenlin, Peng, & Shulin, 2012). This aspect has not been addressed since most people use bicycles to cover short distances, and it is environmentally friendly.
The urban transit rail system
The transit system of urban rail is the backbone for most travelers. The railways opened in Beijing in 1969 and have the highest number of terminal lines, with 18 lines operational within the city region. The railway is given an alternative for suppressing traffic congestion in Beijing. From 2012 to 2015, China was recognized as having the best-performing railway. The train starts from Dongzhimen Station and then goes via Sanyuanqiao Station, terminal 3 of Beijing. Upon arrival at Terminal 3 of Beijing, the train may not head toward Terminal three but go straight to Sanyuanqiao Station and then head to the final destination at Dongzhimen Station. Figure 3 below shows the train’s length of service, which is approximately 50.8 km (Feng et al., 2017).
Figure 3: Train terminal stations
The operational efficiency of the train includes various aspects such as train ownership, peak hour, operational distance, travel velocity, and consumption rates of energy by the train. A record issued in 2015 indicates that at the end of 2015, China had 3,538 trains that offered passenger transportation services in the urban rail transit system. The train covers over 2.02 billion km and offers approximately 34810 services daily at an average speed of 35km/hour. This speed is twice the speed of a common bus. For this reason, most people opt to use the train instead of buses, especially for long distances. The headway in Beijing is 2 minutes at most, making it the shortest time when compared with 25 systems of operations. In the current scenario of 2019, the train still operates with the same shortest headway time (Yang et al., 2015). The level of security and punctuality is high, in that the average time of services is 16.7 hours per day, the longest being 18.7 hours per day, and the shortest being 14.2 hours per day. The delay by the train in 2015 occurred 1791 times, and in 2018, it declined to 1756 times, which is a clear indication the managerial part is trying to improve the efficiency levels.
Proposed plans and policies for effective transport performance in Beijing
The performance of an effective transport system relies heavily on the kind of intervention the transport planners and managers initiate to curb city transport challenges. The plans should be feasible and sustainable to avoid reoccurrences of the same problems. Some of the fundamentals to consider when laying down the basics of any transport system include public health, pollution reduction, transport efficiency, social inclusiveness, and the city’s local economy. The commonly known effective transport system has a high quality of transport services especially for the public, they include, accessibility, affordability, convenience, reliability, safety, maintenance, fast among others (Jin, Wang, & Teqi, 2009). This section proposes some of the plans and policies that may be applied to enhance the performance of the transport system in Beijing City.
Managers and planners in Beijing should seek to find out the root cause of a particular challenge by conducting a city situational analysis. This entails taking a deeper study and investigating some challenges, such as increased traffic jams and private and public sector conflict, among many other issues. For example, the conflict between the private and public sector transport systems in Beijing results from the previously implemented policy perceived as biased. This phase is critical because it sets the tone for other phases. The definition of any policy that will be chosen will be based on the findings from the situational analysis. In this context, the local government should purposely lie with other key transport stakeholders to acquire information and seek further solutions. This provides room for a deeper analysis of the problem.
A comprehensive network approach may have the upper hand in transport planning. Beijing is facing heavy traffic from people and vehicles, which is a barrier to better transport system performance. This might force the city managers to regulate the population entering the city. Therefore, the local city government of Beijing will be confined to taking objectively oriented measures to solve the problems. The objectives in this regard should be achievable and practical. The objectives act as a guide to attain solutions for a particular problem by generating various alternatives. To reduce traffic jams in the city, the city managers should come up with substantive physical planning. One of the proposed ways is to enhance physical planning. This includes creating infrastructures that intersect each other. This will require the local government to plan to develop more working and cycling paths. The Transit Street Design Guide is a comprehensive practical guide that includes stops, intersections, transit lanes, and stations.
The problem emerging from the high demand for transport can be solved through the optimization of bus routes. This initiative is important since it acts as a mechanism to curb overlap and further promotes city coverage. This approach was done in the city of Houston, and it reduced the overlapping, and the ridership increased by 7%.
Secondly, another proposed intervention is a policy for managing travel demand within the city of Beijing. The city of Beijing has increasingly emphasized the construction of new transport ways to curb Beijing’s transportation problems and neglected the potential strategic benefits that will greatly serve as a measure to solve and improve transport system performance rather than relying on efforts to constructive massive transport systems. The city has invested much of its revenue in infrastructure development. However, the population is increasing rate outdoes the construction rates initiated by the government to accommodate the whole population. The efficient utilization of roads is poorly done because of poor managerial strategies. The managerial policy on travel demand would involve well-planned strategies to reduce the growth rate for private car ownership. Cars in Beijing are four times those in Brazilian cities in the United States.
Charges for congestion within the city should be imposed, especially in the city centre. The reason for subjecting these charges is to control and guide various cars entering the CBD. For instance, some cars may be wrongly parked, barring other vehicles from passing. Therefore, city managers and planners should impose heavy penalties to ensure every driver is responsible for any congestion caused. Further policies should also try to regulate the rate of road accidents and quickly remove the accident-causing vehicles from the road to provide an open way for other vehicles to move.
The city should also promulgate a policy regarding energy development for various transport systems. This entails creating economic standards for fuel consumption for motorcycles, commercial trucks, and heavy-duty vehicles. Besides, economic standards for fuel should be based on incentives and specific structures for manufacturers so that each manufacturer works independently to meet the required and authorized fuel consumption standards. For this policy to be effective, China should embrace it across other megacities. For example, during the fiscal year, the manufacturers are entitled to improve fuel economy by 1% for the entire fleet of manufacturers when selling. If the standards are unmet, penalties will be applied to those who bypass the requirement.
The government should try to formulate a policy that promotes the production, demonstration, and utilization of hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). More especially, the policy should be subjected to passenger cars such as taxis in Beijing. Taxis are likely to benefit from hybrid-driven trains. The rationale behind formulating this policy is to boost the efficiency levels for energy usage (Shi et al., 2014).
Beijing city managers should formulate a policy that caters to the poor by providing alternatives in the transport systems. Beijing has had relatively huge public transport subsidies in the last two decades. The current operational tariff has a special preference for old people, children, civil servants, students, and pensioners; however, the aspect of the socioeconomic status that accounts for poverty levels is not taken into account. The city managers should work to include the extreme groups in the light of poverty encroachment by regulating changing ticket price fluctuations. This goes in hand with fuel fluctuation rates in the country. Besides, the government should provide cheap means for the people living in this kind of social status. Failure to develop an intervention that caters to the poor will result in a large population moving across the city as pedestrians and beggars. This increases the levels of traffic congestion in the city.
The local government should work with the national government to improve the infrastructure and operations of transport systems following the established policies. Instances where there is a need to re-evaluate some of the policies. The local managers should consult key stakeholders and follow the procedures for formulating a new policy. Therefore, city planners and managers should create good cooperation with the national government in developing the region and improving the performance of the transport system.
The performance of the transport system also relies on the task force in the transport sector. Beijing is a big city with enough and available cheap labor, however, the individuals interested in the transport sector should meet the criteria or specifications required to provide quality services. Therefore, there is a need for reinforcement in recruiting qualified human resources. This goes in line with the intervention to minimize road and air accidents. The people behind the transport system operation should meet the qualifications and have legit certifications that show the level of competency. Some areas requiring experience include piloting, engineering, driving, and transport system maintenance. Therefore, a policy overlooks the level of qualifications to work in the transport sector.
Implementing these policies might cost the government a huge amount of money. The reason for expenses will depend on the type of policy implemented. Various policies have a procedure for developing and rolling out to the public. Also, it engages in a series of activities to ensure whether the newly established policy is more reliable. Before implementation, there is also a need to assess the consequences of the new policy. The new policy should satisfy and sustain the demands for transport, ensure balanced support from all key stakeholders, protect the environment and human life, and not conflict with the existing policies.
The general performance of the transport system in Beijing is remarkable, especially the air and rail transport. The two means of transport have been rated to meet the performance standards with low rates of challenges. However, road transport within the city faces challenges that emerge from the increasing population. Some challenges include traffic congestion, fluctuation of transport prices, and the conflict between the public and the private transport systems, among others. The effective way to curb these challenges is by formulating policies that would act as a catalyst in minimizing these problems.
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