It was 8 am when I was crowded on a platform on Beijing's Line 5 in the northern part of the city. I was trying to squeeze into a peak-hour subway train to reach a destination in the south before 9:30 am, but I failed on my first five attempts.
Racing against the time, I gave up the subway for a cab instead.
I thought to myself, "Well, even if it's much more pricey, it's OK as long as I could be on time."
I soon realized I was totally wrong when the cab got stuck in traffic on the fourth ring road.
Luckily, I left my apartment quite early and still managed to get there just on time, but the infamous Beijing traffic made pine for my days in London.
The British capital is vast and populated, too. It has a higher car density per square kilometer than Beijing. But the traffic management is far better.
London Mayor Boris Johnson published an article after his China visit a few weeks ago to praise the high-speed railway connecting Beijing and Shanghai.
Despite this state-of-the-art project, Chinese cities actually have a lot to learn from London, particularly on urban transport.
It is conventional Chinese wisdom that bigger roads make traffic less congested. But why is Beijing, with rings of huge roads, still so jammed?
That's definitely not the case in London. Even Euston Road, a road in London with two lanes in each direction, is much smaller than most roads in Beijing.
With few big roads, London's road traffic map is like a cobweb of small streets, offering drivers more alternatives when one road is blocked.
But most drivers in Beijing only have big ring roads to choose from, leaving them with very few alternatives.
London does not merely rely on the road. It has a comprehensive transit system that includes a 150-year-old tube, railways to nearby suburban areas and waterways. This system is intelligent and offers a range of choices to commuters.
China's major cities, like Beijing and Shanghai, can learn from this example.
The nation is currently undergoing an ambitious and tremendous process of urbanization.
Rather than investing money heavily into state-of-the-art towers or skyscrapers, hopefully the decision-makers could take the chance to make our urban transport more efficient and intelligent to benefit more people.''
我站在擁擠的北京北部的5號(hào)線站臺(tái)上時(shí)是早上8點(diǎn)。我只是想擠進(jìn)這個(gè)早高峰時(shí)段的地鐵，能在上午9:30以前到達(dá)位于市南的目的地，但是嘗試了五次都失敗了。
因?yàn)橐蜁r(shí)間賽跑，所以我放棄了地鐵改乘出租車。
我心里想：“好吧，只要能按時(shí)到，貴點(diǎn)也值了。”
但當(dāng)出租車被堵在第四環(huán)路時(shí)，我很快意識(shí)到自己完全錯(cuò)了。
幸運(yùn)的是，我很早就從公寓出發(fā)了，最終還是設(shè)法準(zhǔn)時(shí)到了，但是臭名昭著的北京交通讓我想起了在倫敦的日子。
倫敦面積也很大，人口也眾多。每平方公里的車輛密度比北京要大，但其交通管理卻比北京好得多。
倫敦市長(zhǎng)鮑里斯·約翰遜幾周前訪華，之后他發(fā)表了一篇贊美連接北京和上海的高速鐵路的文章。
盡管有這個(gè)最先進(jìn)的項(xiàng)目，但中國的城市的確有很多方面要向倫敦學(xué)習(xí)，尤其是城市交通。
中國傳統(tǒng)智慧認(rèn)為路越寬越多，交通就越不堵塞，但為什么北京交通網(wǎng)這么發(fā)達(dá)卻還那么堵?
倫敦的情況并非如此。甚至是每個(gè)方向有兩車道的尤斯頓路，也比北京大多數(shù)的路窄很多。
倫敦幾乎沒有很寬的路，它的交通地圖就像小街道的密密麻麻的蜘蛛網(wǎng)一樣，即使一條路不通司機(jī)也有諸多選擇。
但大多數(shù)北京的司機(jī)僅有大環(huán)線道路這一選擇，他們的選擇余地很小。
倫敦并不僅僅依賴道路。它有一個(gè)綜合的交通系統(tǒng)，包括一個(gè)150年的隧道、到附近郊區(qū)的鐵路和水路。該系統(tǒng)是智能化的，能為乘客提供大量選擇。
中國的大城市例如北京、上海等，可以從這個(gè)例子中學(xué)習(xí)。
中國正在雄心勃勃地推進(jìn)規(guī)模巨大的城市化進(jìn)程。
希望決策者可以利用這個(gè)機(jī)會(huì)使我們的城市交通更加高效和智能化，能讓更多人受惠，而不是投資建立現(xiàn)代化的高樓或摩天大樓。
