Plague of cars chokes Shanghai

[dArKeR]

When officials drew up the blueprints for the redesign of this city in the early 1980s, nary a skyscraper punctuated the low-slung horizon, the buildings of which mostly dated from the decades of Western control early in the last century.

The hugely ambitious plans called for Shanghai to be built anew. And among the top priorities in a city previously dominated by bicycles was avoiding the most common plagues of the automobile age -- unmanageable traffic and unbearable pollution.

To that end, enormous sums were spent on spectacular bridges, elevated highways and a brand-new subway system. But today, glance out the window of one of this city's 3,000 high-rises at around 6pm, when snarling masses of honking cars tend to congeal in gridlock, and it is hard to escape the impression that Shanghai, at least for now, is plagued nevertheless.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/07/15/2003263583

[Old and In the Way]

1. Same problem in Southern China

They built an impressive primary transportation infrastructure when they had no cars....but now they are realizing that it's their secondary roads that are the problem. They are seeing massive gridlock in all their major industrial areas....they are trying to get ahead of the curve, but it's a real mess right now.

No one gives anyone a break over there. It's almost a sign of dishonor to let someone get ahead of you or turn in front of you. They don't realize that by not letting someone cut in front of you, traffic is also backing up in front of you because no one is letting the guy in your lane ahead of you to cut through. Talk about self defeating thinking.

[dArKeR]

2. Taiwan was worse when I lived their. They had limited land and no

public transport except buses driving on the same small roads. (KMT governemnt). When Chen became Taipei Mayor, things began to change because he was making the KMT look like fools, which they are times 1000.

Now the MRT is great. You can get around to almost anywhere in Taipei County very fast and comfortably. No car, no insurance, no DL. (What a nightmare for American Whore Corporations and WhoreLand Security.)

And there are girls like this all over the place offering one ice-cream!

[Old and In the Way]

3. If people in the US ever get a chance to ride the HK rail system

they'd see how public transportation can be done in a world class way. I'm sure Taiwan's is similarly progressive.

[dArKeR]

4. Japan's is the best I've been on. Taiwan's is much newer and cleaning

than HK. But HK isn't bad.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Moscow was choking with cars when I was there in 1993.

And Moscow is one of those cities where public transport is inexpensive (especially for foreigners from the west) and efficient.