China's Traffic Troubles
- China popullation is 1.351 billion people and 240 million people own a car.
- China's roads are full of new drivers.
- China’s driver education is not great.
A car is considered a status symbol. If you own a car you are considered a "rich" person because you are too important to ride in public transportation.
The government has also worked to improve long-distance travel, building new airports and rolling out a massive network of high speed trains designed to get people where they’re going faster and keep them off the highways.
There was a traffic jam that lasted 10 days in China. The cause of the traffic jam was reported to be a spike in traffic by heavy trucks heading to Beijing, along with National Highway 110's maintenance work that began five days later. Authorities tried to speed up traffic by allowing more trucks to enter Beijing, especially at night. They also asked trucking companies to suspend operations or take alternate routes. By late August 2010, the traffic jam largely dissipated, reportedly due to the efforts of authorities.
There are just too many people. Even with great driver education, wider roads, and fewer people buying cars, traffic jams would still be likely in a city like Beijing, which is host to more than twenty million people.
