China is in the news. The Chinese President Hu Jintao, is visiting President Obama this week. The Chinese have been visiting the Central Valley, hoping to score some high-speed rail contracts. Those of us who are high-speed rail promoters have a severe case of China envy.
However, that envy is very selective. In California, the CHSRA keeps telling us that if we don't build their high-speed train, we will have to build lots more highways and runways. The fact is that China is the world leader in the construction of highways and runways, even as we speak. They seem to understand that they will need all transit modes, and that one mode (HSR) is not a substitute for all the others. Our HSR guys may or may not know that, but what they are telling us about all this are lies.
The Chinese are building everything transportation-related for everybody for several reasons which are never discussed. They have four times the population of the US. They are on the way to having the largest cities on earth. They are undergoing the various stages of Industrial Revolution that the US passed through in the 19th and early 20th century; now it's their turn.
The Chinese are determined to make a huge show of how they will become the world's leading economic power. Meanwhile, their urban streets are clogged to a stand still. They are selling (and buying) far more cars than we ever have. Indeed, General Motors sells more cars in China than in the US. The Chinese are coming to a realization that they have already overbuilt their high-speed rail capacity and are now having second thoughts.
So, as the article points out, the Chinese are building tunnels and subways to ease traffic. They are developing urban an regional public mass transit because what they have now is deficient. (Isn't that what we should be doing, instead of building a HSR system between SF and LA that we don't need and can't afford?)
How come we're not envying all that other stuff, besides their high-speed rail?
Are you getting the picture? Our China envy is grossly misplaced and based on misleading misunderstandings. We are being scammed by the HSR industries worldwide and its political promoters in the US.
If you're not getting the whole truth, you are, in effect, being lied to. And, that is exactly what has been happening to us for years.
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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2011-01/17/content_11869032.htm
Tunnels, rails to ease capital's traffic woes
(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-17 16:47
BEIJING - Beijing will continue to tackle traffic congestion by building massive underground tunnels and expanding rail transit, Mayor Guo Jinlong told the city's annual legislative meeting on Sunday.
Guo said in the government's annual report that one of many important jobs in 2011 is constructing underground roads on the east and west sides of the Second Ring Road.
"The traffic jams result from the growth in the number of automobiles. The situation demands immediate attention," he said.
But the locations will make construction work challenging, policy makers believed.
"Because of the complex underground pipeline systems, geological conditions and abundance of historical relics, these will be the world's most difficult tunnels to dig," Beijing municipal commission of urban planning Vice-Director Zhou Nansen said.
The deepest section will be 60 meters underground and require sophisticated evacuation and fire-control facilities, Zhou said.
Construction will begin on another 2-km-long tunnel under Wangfujing Avenue, the city's renowned commercial pedestrian street. The deepest section of the Wangfujing tunnel will be 50 meters below ground.
Other solutions discussed during the meeting included doubling the 336-km-long subway network by 2015 and nearly tripling it by 2020.
The capital's traffic problems arising from rapid economic growth have, in turn, become an impediment to it and affect residents' daily lives.
Deputies are actively contributing proposals at the annual conference to address transportation problems.
Beijing Normal University art professor Yu Dan, who is acclaimed for lecturing on the "Analects of Confucius" on TV, said her discussion group members paid serious attention to the traffic problem.
Yu believed expanding public transport is the solution.
"The public transport system is still weak. That's why many of us choose private cars to meet our daily needs," she said.
Decentralizing the city's zoned functions has also been proposed, she added.
The Beijing government also outlined the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) in its annual work reports. It vowed to continue Beijing's economic development by increasing the local GDP by 8 percent annually over next five years and ensuring people's incomes keep pace with GDP growth.
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