China: 100km Traffic Jam

China's Nine-Day Traffic Jam Stretches 100km
Aug 23, 2010 | http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100823...inaroadtraffic

BEIJING (AFP) – Thousands of vehicles were bogged down Monday in a more than 100-kilometre (62-mile) traffic jam leading to Beijing that has lasted nine days and highlights China's growing road congestion woes.

The Beijing-Tibet expressway slowed to a crawl on August 14 due to a spike in traffic by cargo-bearing heavy trucks heading to the capital, and compounded by road maintenance work that began five days later, the Global Times said.

The state-run newspaper said the jam between Beijing and Jining city had given birth to a mini-economy with local merchants capitalising on the stranded drivers' predicament by selling them water and food at inflated prices.

That stretch of highway linking Beijing with the northern province of Hebei and the Inner Mongolia region has become increasingly prone to massive jams as the capital of more than 20 million people sucks in huge shipments of goods.

Traffic slowed to a snail's pace in June and July for nearly a month, according to earlier press reports.

The latest clog has been worsened by the road improvement project, made necessary by highway damage caused by a steady increase in cargo traffic, the Global Times said.

China has embarked in recent years on a huge expansion of its national road system but soaring traffic periodically overwhelms the grid.

The congestion was expected to last into mid-September as the road project will not be finished until then, the newspaper said.

The roadway is a major artery for the supply of produce, coal and other goods to Beijing.

IEFBR14 · 08-24-2010 03:07 PM

I've often wondered what happens in a major traffic jam (major in southern ON would be upwards of an hour) when any of the following happens to someone stuck in traffic:

1. Nature calls.
2. Their vehicle runs out of fuel.
3. Their vehicle stops running for some other reason.
4. They have a medical emergency.
5. Their vehicle gets rear-ended by an inattentive driver (and/or they rear-end the car in front of them.)
6. They sleep from exhaustion.

You'd think any of these sorts of things happen routinely here. Because they usually happen on controlled access highways, e.g. 4xx series, there's no way for people to exit or for assistance/emergency vehicles to reach them. What do people do?

Urbanomicon · 08-24-2010 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by IEFBR14

I've often wondered what happens in a major traffic jam (major in southern ON would be upwards of an hour) when any of the following happens to someone stuck in traffic:

1. Nature calls.
2. Their vehicle runs out of fuel.
3. Their vehicle stops running for some other reason.
4. They have a medical emergency.
5. Their vehicle gets rear-ended by an inattentive driver (and/or they rear-end the car in front of them.)
6. They sleep from exhaustion.

You'd think any of these sorts of things happen routinely here. Because they usually happen on controlled access highways, e.g. 4xx series, there's no way for people to exit or for assistance/emergency vehicles to reach them. What do people do?

Usually if the highway is closed or otherwise not moving, cars will exit the highway, sometimes by going the wrong way on the shoulder and/or exiting on the on ramps (this is often done by police if the road is closed for an extended period). It's the truck drivers that have to suffer because their vehicles are too large to turn around.

Shawn · 08-28-2010 07:06 PM

The "coolest" traffic jam I've ever been stuck in was in the summer time in BC on the Sea to Sky Highway. Highway officials had stopped traffic because of some instability of the higher rocks due to earlier blasting. They occasionally blast to reduce the risk of land slides in the rainy winter time.

If you're not familiar with the Sea to Sky Highway, there are many sections where you are hugged up against a mountain on one side, and the ocean on the other - no place to go if traffic gets blocked. (see photo below)

For almost 2 hours we sat - but it was the BEST TIME! Everyone got out of their cars. You chatted with your neighbours, music playing, spontaneous picnics happening and even some resourceful people selling pop, water and BBQ'ing. It was like a tail gate party!

plam · 08-29-2010 09:05 AM

Originally Posted by Shawn

The "coolest" traffic jam I've ever been stuck in was in the summer time in BC on the Sea to Sky Highway. Highway officials had stopped traffic because of some instability of the higher rocks due to earlier blasting. They occasionally blast to reduce the risk of land slides in the rainy winter time.

Yup. The views are awesome. I've never been stuck on it, but avoided that by a few days.

The highway doesn't look like that anymore though. It got widened pretty much to 4 lanes from Vancouver to Whistler, at least, for the Olympics, and is a lot easier and faster to drive now.