China is in a fast growing stage of urbanization and mobility development. The urbanization level of China increased from 36.09% in 2000 to 42.99% in 2005. The growth of vehicle numbers is also quite striking. It took almost half a century to reach the first one million vehicles in Beijing. Sixand a half years passed before Beijing jumped to a city of two million vehicles, and 3.75 years later, on May 26th, 2007, Beijing confronted three million vehicles. Urban sprawl and motorization in big cities causes social problems, such as traffic congestion, air and water pollution, energy problems, etc. This situation should be understood and taken into concern in the transportation policy. This paper expresses and analyzes the mobility development process in big cities in China, taking Beijing as an example. The evolution of transportation policy is described. Both transportation demand management and infrastructure contraction should be considered simultaneously in the policy. (Author/publisher).
Abstract