Today Was Beijing's Busiest Day for Traffic in 5 Years

原创 Irene Li theBeijinger

收录于合集

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The capital was a bit more congested this morning, not because it was down with a stuffy nose, but because of more traffic. The gridlock began around 6.45am, with the morning rush hour kicking off 45 minutes earlier than usual, according to the Winter Olympics traffic control center.

Roughly an hour later, the situation hadn't gotten any better. “Many places, including Jingkai Expressway and Beijing Jinggang’ao Expressway, started seeing major congestion at around 7.30am,” the director of the city traffic monitoring center said.

It took some people 24 minutes just to travel 4.5 km

Incidentally, according to Beijing Daily, today marked one of the worst traffic jams Beijing has seen in the past five years. Why? It all boils down to two things: the beginning of school and reserved Olympic lanes remaining closed to the public.

Kindergartens, primary and secondary schools all reopened today following an extended Spring Festival holiday, and many schools require children to be in class by 7.40am.

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To make matters worse, lanes on expressways and roads designated for Olympic vehicles remained closed to regular traffic, as Olympians are heading home following the Games' conclusion yesterday.

Many netizens took to the web about the latter issue, asking when these lanes would be reopened to the public. Unfortunately, it seems the traffic-induced headaches will last a little longer, as the city government announced that the lanes will remain closed to the public until Mar 16, a few days after the Paralympics end.

Beijing was ranked as the most congested city in China last year, with the lowest commuting speed during peak hours, according to a 2021 report from Baidu Maps.