Cities must be built for people, not cars - G...哦哦

Cities must be built for people, not cars

• Source: Global Times
• [22:55 October 12 2010]
• Comments

Luo Jing

Editor's Note:

With the mega-cities in China such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen growing ever more rapidly, problems such as traffic congestion, pollution, and lack of resources have been worsening. Research conducted in recent years suggest that the urban residents are becoming unhappier. Is there no choice but expansion for China's cities? How can the urban quality of life be raised? Global Times (GT) reporter Wu Meng talked to Luo Jing (Luo), a researcher with the Institute of Urban Development and Environment Research, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on the issues involved.

GT: What are the main factors that affect people's satisfaction with urban life?

Luo: The problems of rapid urbanization were first brought up by scholars and sociologists in the West in the 1970s, after the wave of growth following World War II

As a result, resources like water and electricity were being consumed at a fast speed, and traffic jams were building up everywhere. It became more difficult for people to get around, see friends and visit family, therefore the pressure on ordinary people living in those cities was mounting.

China is in the same situation now as Western Europe was in the 1970s. But urbanization in China has been even faster and the scale is obviously much larger.

With tens of millions of people living in major cities, the construction of infrastructure hasn't kept up with the pace of migration, and the growth of heavy industry has poisoned the air.

For ordinary people to travel to the other end of the city to see friends or family, they need to make an appointment days before and have to spend hours on the busy road. High property price and frequent food security alerts only make things worse.

Big cities like Beijing and Shanghai enjoy a lot of beneficial policies from the central government, but these policies are mainly focused on economic development, not on quality of life.

GT: By the end of 2009, Beijing had 19.7 million residents, far more than originally planned. This pattern is repeated in many Chinese cities. When will this expansion end?

Luo: When we talk about mega-cities in China, we automatically switch the topic to the size of the population. However, population is not a direct cause of the problem. Rather, it lies in such factors as lagging infrastructure, a backward social welfare system and incomplete urban construction.

The greater Tokyo metropolitan area, with 37 million people, is the largest and one of the densest cities in the world. It has more people than Beijing, but it is more convenient and comfortable to live in, because it has a comprehensive social welfare system, well-built public infrastructure and a properly integrated public transport system.

So there is nothing wrong with the city expansion itself as long as the supporting systems are up to the same standard.

The problem with the current urbanization in China mainly lies in the planning itself. It has been a large-scale, broad-brush development model for years. Policymakers and urban planners should think about how to build safe, healthy and convenient communities.

Unfortunately, the first idea that pops up is how to make the city look grand and impressive. So we see roads as wide as 300 meters with a barrier in the middle. To simply cross the road, one needs to walk 10 minutes over a giant bridge.

Of course, a city cannot expand endlessly. When it reaches a certain size, expansion will bring more adverse effects such as overburdening the social welfare system, and undermining security and efficiency.

The government needs to focus more on developing the 2nd- and 3rd-tier cities, rather than pushing the big cities; and focus more on raising the quality of support systems, rather than just looking for an impressive map.

GT: Is there any way to solve the traffic issues? For instance, levying tax on private cars driving in inner city areas, as London has done?

Luo: The London solution might be possible for a while. But because of the differences in income level and political systems, a copy-cat tax-levy system may not be the ultimate solution.

Currently, when faced with such problems, the government tends to only look at one side of the problem. For example, in order to deal with heavy traffic, we need to make the roads wider so cars will have more lanes available.

But what we ignored is that in big cities like Beijing, by merely putting large amounts of money into widening the roads is a waste of resources and only makes matters worse. Instead, we need to think about what makes a person comfortable while walking or taking public transportation.

At the moment, we always see giant roads, solid concrete buildings with no greenery, and all the measures and construction plans are geared up to encourage people to drive cars.

We don't need wide roads everywhere, and small private roads for walking are more inviting.

Again, this is a responsibility of the planning process. The government needs to put more emphasis on controlling the increasing number of cars to ease