Beijing road congestion increased last year despite tough anti-traffic measures

Beijing’s road congestion worsened last year despite tough measures to ease traffic flow, with traffic jams averaging nearly two hours each work day, according to a new report.

The capital city’s roads were clogged for an average of one hour and 55 minutes on every work day last year – an increase of 25 minutes from 2012, the Beijing Times quoted a report by the Beijing Commission of Transport as saying.

The period of serious and moderate congestion increased by 10 minutes atrafnd 15 minutes respectively, the commission said.

Guo Jifu, director of the Beijing Transportation Research Centre, was quoted as saying that the conflict between the growth of vehicles and roads would inevitably lead to even worse traffic jams.

Last year, about 31 million daily journeys were recorded within the sixth ring road, up by two per cent from 2012. And despite licence plate control, the number of vehicles running on the road grew by five per cent.

In contrast, the length of roads in the capital city increased by less than one per cent.