WATCH: See how one of the most densely populated cities in China is managing their traffic congestion.
CHENGDU, China – In the sprawling, growing, densely-populated Chinese city of Chengdu, commuters face the same challenges as anyone living in an urban environment like Toronto. Getting to work on time might seem almost impossible when you live among 15 million other people in China’s fourth-largest city.
Yet, compared to the plight of morning travellers planning a trip in the much smaller Greater Toronto Area, it’s a breeze.
Cars race along wide, multi-lane streets separated by tree-lined medians, buses are filled with young workers headed to their jobs and wave after wave of drivers on electrically-powered scooters swoosh past intersections, many with a passenger sitting behind. The toot-toot of horns is constant. Even in rush hour, traffic is constantly moving.
But no one here is taking mobility for granted. In fact, auto parts suppliers, manufacturers and academics are gathering to figure out how to cope with an increasing population on the move around the world.
“We’ve got to do more and do better with less,” said Jean-Dominique Senard, CEO of the Michelin Group.
The French tire maker is sponsoring the 12th Michelin Challenge Bibendum, an international summit encouraging the sharing of new technologies and ideas to improve transportation.
One of the keynote speakers, from Toronto, told participants that the key to fixing gridlock is more and better public transportation, good enough that drivers will no longer need a vehicle.
“We need to make walking, riding bicycles and using public transit a better option,” said Gil Penalosa, CEO of 880 cities, a Toronto NGO pushing for better transportation options.
He says cars aren’t the best option.
“The GTA is going to grow by 50 per cent in the next 20 years. Imagine if we have such traffic jams today, imagine what it’s going to look like if we have 50 per cent more cars?”
Penalosa’s brother was mayor of Bogota, Columbia, which radically restricted private car access to the city in a move widely heralded as a success. Penalosa said incoming Toronto mayor John Tory should institute a pilot project to get traffic moving better in the downtown core, by banning cars altogether on King Street or Queen Street and speeding up public transit.
“Why doesn’t he make the streetcar a priority? In the peak hours, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. it should be for street cars only. At zero capital cost, it would be 30 per cent more street cars,” Penalosa said.
Penalosa acknowledges there would be significant opposition; but he says the “general interest must prevail.”
Pete Selleck, president of Michelin North America, told Global News the time is right for a change of thinking.
“Clearly, if we do what we’ve been doing in the past and more and more people get cars and urbanization continues, it will only get worse,” he said.
“We have to figure out what are the solutions that will lead to be better tomorrow for Toronto and other cities.”
One engineering company in Chengdu from France is displaying a concept vehicle intended to give drivers stuck in traffic a relief from some of the stress of commuting. It’s the driver-less, or autonomous car that uses laser sensors on the roof coupled with mapping software.
“Now, in a jam, you have to drive, but it’s time you’re losing, you can do something else,” said engineer Luc Barthelemy, project chief for Link&Go, which developed the electric self-driving car for AKKA Technologies.
Barthelemy demonstrates by pushing in the steering column, rotating his bench seat to face two passengers in the rear. Up to four commuters could talk, work, or sleep while the car made its way to its intended destination.
Of course, the autonomous car would require changes to legislation that requires drivers be attentive to the wheel at all times. But Barthelemy says within 10 to 15 years, drivers could be using vehicles equipped with technology that would let them do something other than get frustrated behind the wheel in traffic.
Meantime, Chengdu is planning on other ways to keep its population moving. The city, which is the capital of Sichuan province, started building its first subway in 2005. So far, two metro lines have been completed. By 2020, the city will have a seven line network of subways with 115 stations that stretch for 291 kilometres.
Penalosa says Toronto has to build as much public transit as it can to serve as many people as possible, while putting a greater focus on pedestrians and cyclists. He knows drivers won’t like it, until they see traffic speed up.
“Change is hard,” he said.
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