Project Scope and Relationship to China's Agenda 21

This project seeks to develop modern urban methods of transport planning and management in China, and is based on programme area 10B of China's Agenda 21, and related to 12E.

1. Background

Although China's automotive industry is still in its early stages, and private ownership of cars in China is still low, the problems of traffic jams and congestion, the deterioration of the transportation environment, and the rate of road accidents in the cities of China is equal to or worse than that of developed countries. By the year 2000, China's urbanization level will reach 25 percent, and the demand for and number of vehicles for personal and commercial use will continue to expand, causing increasing problems for China's large urban areas.

The existing management techniques and rail transport systems are inadequate to meet the requirements of transport development in China's modern cities for the 21st century. Transportation bottlenecks will no doubt restrain national economic development, and will be obstacles to efforts to improve the environment and the living quality of the urban population.

It is therefore necessary to introduce advanced techniques and international exchanges, and to establish pilot projects to demonstrate new rail transport technologies, so as to assist China's cities and policy makers in dealing with current and future transport problems.

China currently has in place a solid foundation to absorb new technologies which could be introduced under this project. For example, more than 30 cities have conducted a comprehensive transport and traffic survey and some of these have employed sophisticated transport planning methodologies. Cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen and Nanjing have begun to introduce Traffic System Management (TSM) and Transport Demand Management (TDM) to tackle urban transport problems. In addition, more than 20 cities have completed feasibility studies of the urban express rail transport system, and underground railways are under construction in Shanghai and Guangzhou, as is a light rail line project in Chongqing.

During the 7th Five-Year Plan period, China completed the following studies: comprehensive transport system planning models in large cities; comprehensive study of technical aspects of light rail transit systems; and methods of macro-traffic management and urban transport environment protection. Apart from this, China has either hosted or collaborated with international consulting services in both the projects of urban transport technical assistance and training for medium-sized cities and the project of traffic consulting for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Tianjin.

During the 7th Five-Year Plan period, there have been many theoretical studies in various transport sectors affecting large cities. Nevertheless, these theories have not been placed into practice in sufficient number. In addition, current transport planning and management techniques are rather backward. Transportation management agencies lack China-specific commercial transport planning and management software packages.

Urban rail transport technologies are also still imperfect, as are traffic safety techniques. The level of computerized accident analysis is still low. The study of transport environment is confined to monitoring vehicle emission and noise, and setting up their standards. Urban traffic safety and environment is becoming worse.

2. Objectives

• Long-term Objectives
  • To develop modern urban methods of transport planning and management. This will be achieved through upgrading the planning and management skills of professional staff, computerized software packages, and acquiring urban rail transport technologies. A pilot project will support the realization of these targets.

• Immediate Objectives
  • To implement dynamic urban transport planning, to consider the relationship between transport and urban development, and to create rational urban land use patterns. To implement Traffic System Management (TSM) and Transport Demand Management (TDM) in large cities.
  • To establish an efficient transport planning and management system of expressways and bicycle networks.
  • To introduce advanced rail transport technologies and to understand and apply these through pilot projects. By doing so, a complete set of rail transport design, manufacture, construction, maintenance and management skills will be established.
  • To develop and introduce urban transport planning and management software packages and to set up urban transport information systems in order to increase the level of urban transport planning and management.
  • To establish and complete road traffic safety standards which meet international standards and respond to Chinese traffic characteristics. To set up a transport environment analysis and evaluation system and traffic pollution control measures.

3. Activities

• 3.1 Urban land use and transport
  • Coordinated techniques of urban land use and transportation.
  • Introduce Traffic System Management (TSM) and the Transport Demand Management (TDM) in China's large cities.

• 3.2 Urban grade separated transport network
  • Urban expressway network planning.
    • Accessibility and capacity of urban express roads
    • Feasibility study for expressways
    • Traffic control skill for expressways
    • Emergency aid system for expressways

  • Urban bicycle road networks
    • Planning method for bicycle road networks
    • Countermeasure management of the urban bicycle traffic
    • Interchange between bicycles and the other kinds of transport in cities

  • Connection between the expressway network and the normal road network.

  It is planned to choose a medium-sized city (future population of about 1 million) with rapid economic development and speedy extension of urban land use as a pilot study project.

• 3.3 Comprehensive urban passenger transport system and rail transport pilot engineering project as demonstration.
  • Coordination of the passenger transport models in various modes
  • Facility design and the construction of rail transport
  • Vehicle design and the manufacture of rail transport
  • Rail traffic control, management and maintenance

  The Light Rail Transport in Chongqing or Shenyang will be the pilot site for demonstration; the newly-built underground railway in Tianjin or Chengdu will be the alternative pilot site.

• 3.4 Development of an urban road transport planning and management software package.
  • Urban transport information system
  • Transport demand analysis
  • Transport project evaluation
  • Accident information management and the evaluation
  • Environmental evaluation

  Two or three different types of cities will be chosen as pilot sites for the application of the software packages.

• 3.5 Traffic safety and the transport environment
  • Traffic safety
    • Traffic accidents preventive measures and the improvement of traffic safety
    • Identity characteristics of dangerous sites
    • Management and implementation of traffic safety improvement projects

  • Transport environment
    • The environmental effects of urban transport
    • Evaluation methodology regarding transport environment
    • Countermeasures for transport-related pollution

  The implementing agencies of this project are the State Planning Commission, the State Science and Technique Commission, and the Ministry of Construction.

  The duration of this project will be five years.

4. Inputs

5. Benefits

This project, from a short term point of view, will help to increase transportation and management levels in larger cities, to promote the development of urban rail transport technologies, to reduce the conflict of transport supply and demand in larger cities, to improve urban environments, and to increase transport safety and transport efficiency by the introduction and application of overseas techniques and the training of professional staff.

Over the long term, the implementation of this project will help to establish a unified transportation planning and management system in China; will set up a complete set of techniques of urban rail transport in China, and will increase the level of professional staff. These will bring about improvements in transport infrastructure planning, design and management level in China's large cities.