Transport management measures in the post-Olympic Games period: supporting sustainable urban mobility for Beijing?

Abstract

After decades of rapid economic growth, the municipality of Beijing is now facing serious urban transport challenges with rapid motorization and travel demand growth. Designing and implementing efficient and equitable urban transport policies are essential to achieve the sustainable urban mobility target of the city. The success of transport management around the 2008 Olympic Games has left policymakers with the confidence to develop various efficient policies for congestion mitigation. Following a resume of the characteristics of fast development, this paper investigates the transport management measures used following the Olympic Games. These are analyzed using an ASIF approach within the framework of urban transport sustainability. The policies examined include a priority to develop mass transit systems, small passenger car purchase policy, a staggered peak-hour plan, new charging policies for parking, and traffic restrictions based on license plate numbers. Proposals for enhancing the effectiveness of these policies and recommendations on future policy development are also presented.

Keywords:

• transport policy
• traffic congestion
• public transport
• vehicle use restrictions
• ASIF
• car license plate restrictions
• sustainability
• Beijing

Acknowledgements

The study is supported by EU Marie Curie IIF (MOPED, 300674), National Natural Science Foundation of China (71422010, 71361130016), and National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB725401). The content is solely authors’ responsibility and does not necessarily represent the views of the funding sources. Any remaining errors or shortcomings are our own. Any views or conclusions expressed in this paper do not represent those of funding sources.

Notes

1. See http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/BeijingInformation/BeijingNewsUpdate/t1109642.htm, retrieved on 24 May 2010.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health: [Grant Number 123-4567]; The Warren Foundation: [Grant Numbers 190914, 220914].