Personal Cars and China (2003) / Chapter Skim
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6. Societal Effects of Potential Motorization Pathways
6. Societal Effects of Potential Motorization Pathways
Pages 131-149
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From page 131... ...
Yet the automobile also has had negative effects on quality of life, many of them environmental (NRC, 1997; Forman et al., 2002~. By the 1950s the air pollution created by motor vehicle exhausts and by the refining of fuel for those vehicles had poisoned the air in some cities to such an extent that it was shortening life expectancy.
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From page 132... ...
Furthermore, the cities have an especially delicate ecology of space use very high residential densities and a low proportion of space dedicated to streets (around 10 percent) designed as they were by planners who, before the late 1980s, had no reason to believe there was any need to provide for significant numbers of private motor vehicles.
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From page 133... ...
In the city of Nanjing, for example, between 1985 and 1990 the total number of motor vehicles increased by around 50,000, whereas between 1995 and 2000 the number increased by around 130,000, reflecting the city's economic growth. In the city of Shanghai the growth rate of automobiles was slow until the 1980s; the average annual increment was 13,000.
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From page 134... ...
For example, the rapidly motorizing cities of Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan are located in the rich Yangtze Valley. Authorities in Guangdong Province have expressed concern about the absorption of agricultural land by urbanization in the Pearl River Delta.
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From page 135... ...
This would have the effect of driving development toward the larger land parcels available in the urban periphery. Furthermore, Chinese home construction, which is no longer the exclusive responsibility of the state-owned enterprises, is increasingly being carried out by developers, who are likely to seek economies of scale by building larger housing projects.
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From page 136... ...
As a result, municipalities are motivated to continue converting rural land to urban in order to have continued land-based revenue. At the same time, municipal planning offices are actively fostering concentrated dispersion.
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From page 137... ...
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From page 138... ...
Seoul still has very stringent land use regulations, including provisions that protect a green belt that contains metropolitan development and retains urban densities Jakarta, at 17,056 persons per square kilometer, and Bangkok, at 14,955, have roughly the same density as Shanghai, but their densities result from the ongoing operation of urban land markets, whereas Shanghai's results from a half-century of centralized planning. Although 2 All the density figures provided here were obtained from www.demographia .com.
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From page 139... ...
New York and Chicago, at 2,086 and 1,653 persons per square kilometer, respectively, are friendlier to motorization and decentralization. Auto ownership is about twice as high as in Tokyo, residential densities are low, and the costs of gasoline and the other aspects of car ownership and use are much lower in both New York and Chicago.
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From page 140... ...
are now congested and sure to become much more so with currently rapid motorization rates. 3 Everyone in China has a registered permanent residence that is assigned at birth.
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From page 141... ...
At the same time, the number of motor vehicles increased two and a half times, to more than 700,000. The public transportation services and the traffic management program have improved dramatically.
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From page 142... ...
· Management of the parking stock is required. The investment in private parking spaces near city centers can be expected to occur when the value for parking becomes competitive with that for other uses.
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From page 143... ...
Singapore has now gone on to citywide congestion pricing. Other cities that have enacted charges for entering the city center include Rome, Oslo, Bergen, and Amsterdam, and such charges also have been discussed seriously in London and in Tokyo (where seven separate districts are proposed for paid entry)
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From page 144... ...
These techniques include electronic toll collection and real-time electronic or radio reports on traffic conditions and parking availability that help drivers to select travel times and routes to avoid congestion. Systems that provide information on obstructive incidents (accidents and breakdowns)
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From page 145... ...
Moreover, it appears to have a maximum capacity of about 45,000 passengers per direction per hour, whereas metro has a capacity of about 65,000 passengers per direction per hour and leaves the surface lanes free. Finally, those planning expansion of public transport in China may wish to consider various advanced electronic means of improving the efficiency of public transit.
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From page 146... ...
THE SOCIAL IMPACTS OF RAPID MOTORIZATION Forecasts of adjustments in social behavior resulting from motorization are necessarily very speculative. Many are cultural changes observed in cities of other nations that have been through the motorization process.
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From page 147... ...
Municipal governments may well become increasingly concerned about this division in the society, as they have in other countries. Indeed, the situation puts special priority on maintaining an adequate public transport system and attempting to create cohesion in communities that no longer have a state-owned enterprise employer to assure that cohesion.
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From page 148... ...
Indications are that the series of changes in store will dramatically change urban life in China just as they have changed urban life in the cities of other countries. In some localities guidance of peripheral land development is receiving serious attention.
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From page 149... ...
Beijing: China Statistical Publishing House. Technical Supervision Bureau and Construction Department of China.
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