Traffic congestion… in small towns

I read a blog about Kashgar on Go West Project. Indeed Chinese people are buying more and more cars, and those newly bought cars will make future traffic jam worse. This happens in Kashgar, and other places in China.

There will definitely be worse traffic congestion like any other smaller cities. They don’t know how to tackle traffic problems until they meet them. People won’t learn how to respect traffic rules until they meet these problems and know traffic rules are important.

This is what happens in my hometown — a small county in north China. The provincial government is pushing a large infrastructure re-development program, as part of the nation wide construction boom.

My town now sprawls away to the north. It is now too far to get around by bicycle, and there is no reliable bus system. Taxis are far from enough (strikingly less expensive than in Beijing though). People are buying cars. As flats are increasingly expensive, cars seem more affordable.

And now, people drive their cars to get around, residential compounds are packed with cars. And most importantly, few people follow traffic rules. Traffic congestion happens more frequently than it should. And traffic problem is only part of the disease caused by hasty urbanization.