Travel Demand Management Options in Beijing

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• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9789292578466
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Transportation & Navigation
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Rapid urbanization and motorization combined with high population density have led to serious congestion and air quality problems in the People's Republic of China capital of Beijing. While Beijing accounts for less than 2% of the population, more than 10% of the country's vehicles ply the city's roads. This study is part of the Asian Development Bank's initiative to support greener and more sustainable transport systems that are convenient and lessen carbon dioxide emissions. Read how congestion charging, vehicle ownership quotas, and progressive parking reforms can improve Beijing's approach to travel demand management.

CHAPTER II

Travel Demand Management Measures

A. Types of Travel Demand Management

Travel Demand Management (TDM) aims to reduce the usage by vehicles of the road system while providing a wide variety of mobility options for those who wish to travel. Early attempts at traffic management in Beijing prior to the 1980s generally sought to cater to demand, and to reduce peak period congestion. With the introduction of bus lanes in 1997 on Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue on the Second Ring Road, and subsequent replication elsewhere in the city, there was formal recognition of the need to maximize person flows, rather than focusing solely on assisting car and low occupancy vehicle movements.

Figure 6: An Example of Bus Lanes in Beijing

Source: Beijing Transportation Research Center.

TDM may include measures to modify the time and place of travel, the mode used, or even the decision to travel at all. Ultimately, it may also be aimed at emissions reduction to improve local air quality and reduce global warming impacts. The range of transport infrastructure, traffic management, and TDM measures normally considered by transport authorities is extensive and includes:

• Roadway capacity expansion. New infrastructure and road widening in an attempt to reduce congestion and delays to traffic, although new infrastructure initially operating below capacity in peak periods would usually generate new demand.

• Traffic management. Traffic control system expansion, modifications to traffic signal cycle times and phasing, physical widening at intersections, providing “green waves” for cars to reduce vehicular delays.

• Allocation of road space, and traffic signal cycle times, to favor bus, pedestrian and nonmotorized transport (NMT) movements. Provision of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes on major roads for vehicles with multiple occupants (e.g., buses and cars with three persons or more). Within traffic signal networks, give preferential phases for buses at intersections or pedestrian movements in activity centers, such as shopping precincts and schools; and simplify intersection layouts to increase capacity.

• Physical controls. Road closures, reduced movements at junctions, and local area traffic restrictions to minimize traffic intrusion in residential zones, commercial areas, historic precincts, and in proximity to other sensitive land use.

• Parking controls. Physical, regulatory, and pricing measures applied to the ends of a vehicle trip that if implemented comprehensively across a metropolitan area, offers the potential to moderate or modify vehicular travel.

• Public transport services. Improved rail and bus services, vehicles and supporting facilities, ticketing and information systems may not only enhance accessibility, convenience of use, and reduce journey times to existing passengers, but may induce drivers and passengers from cars and other vehicles to switch to public transport, providing benefits to remaining road users.

• Walkability and other NMT measures. Improved sidewalks and road crossings for pedestrians and provision of lanes and other facilities to support use of NMT for passenger or goods movements. High quality walking environments are associated with vibrant cultural and commercial activity centers and may successfully substitute for short car trips.

• Traveler information (pre- and during trip). Information provided to car drivers and their passengers to avoid excessive nonrecurrent congestion by route planning, modifications to routes and time periods of travel, and use of alternative modes, and minimize parking search times at destinations. Similarly, pre- and during trip information assists public transport users to plan their journey, monitor journey times, and change routes and services, if necessary.

• Behavioral measures. Inform travelers, particularly car users, of the range of modes available and their time and cost characteristics, and environmental impacts, with the aim to encourage them to take car pools, shift to public transport, plan their trip itineraries to reduce unnecessary travel, or walk or cycle or change trip starting and finish times to avoid congested periods. Use new technologies to facilitate changes in travel patterns and trip frequency (e.g., telecommuting).

• Administrative charges. Road use charges are already familiar and come in the form of initial ownership charges, and annual vehicular registration charges that are usually based on engine displacement. These charges are used to fund the road system and cost of administration of vehicles and roads. Such charges typically do not vary with vehicle use.

• Fuel taxes. Usually levied by national governments for a variety of reasons but usually not to moderate vehicle use. There is a weak relationship between normal levels of fuel tax and vehicle use—high taxes tend to encourage consumers to choose fuel-efficient vehicles instead of moderating travel.

• Pricing or charging of roads and other transport based on use. Apply tolls or charges when crossing boundaries of congested or historic zones, or traveling within such zones, or according to distance traveled or amount of prevailing congestion on a network. In some cases, notably in the US, some lanes of key roads are tolled and in return offer a defined level of traffic service, i.e., value pricing. Tolling is often used as a financing strategy to provide funding for road infrastructure that may not otherwise be built. Charges on other modes such as public transport also influence road use.

• Low emission zones (LEZs). Limit entry of vehicles and/or vehicles which do not meet adequate emission standards in historic, sensitive, or other defined parts of cities e.g., in Berlin, London, or Milan. The London and Milan LEZs operate in conjunction with their Congestion Charging Zones.

• Controls on vehicle ownership. Quota systems through lottery or tendering, as applied in Shanghai and Singapore, aim to curb growth of the vehicle fleet. But these may have the reverse effect of ensuring that the available vehicles, usually more expensive with the ownership restriction, are used intensively by household members. For example, in Singapore, the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) whereby the right to own a passenger car is regularly auctioned approximately doubles the retail price of a car. As a result, the average car in Singapore, an island-state, logged more than 19,000 km per year in 2011.²² This annual mileage is one-third more than the average mileage of 14,000 km for a passenger car in Australia in 2012 that is used in both urban and rural areas.²³ Fee or rebate systems apply taxes, or exempt taxes and charges on vehicles with low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, or meet other stringent emission standards. In 2010, electric vehicle manufacturers in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) received incentives, which were passed on to consumers, of up to CNY60,000 for private purchase of new battery electric vehicles, and CNY50,000 for plug-in hybrids in the cities of Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Hefei, and Changchun.²⁴

• Controls on vehicle use. Typically, the controls are based on the final digit of number plates as in Beijing since 2008 when vehicles entering or traveling within the Fifth Ring Road were not permitted to operate on 1 week day per week between the hours of 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Similar controls were implemented in Manila, Philippines and many other cities with varying success. Such systems often favor wealthy households that can afford multiple vehicles. Another common criticism of such schemes, is that in some cases, the vehicle purchased for use on days of the restriction are often older, less energy-efficient and more polluting than the main vehicle.

B. Purposes of Travel Demand Management and Other Measures

The first three measures listed above: (i) roadway capacity expansion; (ii) traffic management; and (iii) allocation of road space and traffic signal cycle times have been commonly applied throughout cities in the PRC. The remaining measures—defined for the purposes of this study as TDM measures—have been implemented to some extent, or are being considered currently, in Beijing and other cities in the PRC. All the measures listed above have been classified in Table 4 according to what may be regarded as their principal purpose. In reality, measures often have multiple purposes or a particular measure, such as congestion charging, may rely on improved public transport to cater to former car occupants who decide to stop using private vehicles.

Table 4: Travel Demand Management and Other Measures Classified by Main Purpose

Purpose	Type of Measure
Reduce delays to vehicles, expand vehicular capacity	Roadway capacity expansion, conventional traffic management, toll roads
Increase car occupancies (as an alternative to low occupancy private vehicles) or prioritize noncar movements	Allocation of road space, and traffic signal cy...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Tables, Figures, and Boxes
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Executive Summary
• I Introduction
• II Travel Demand Management Measures
• III Assessment of Travel Demand Management Scenarios for Beijing
• IV Future Policy Challenges and Improvement Directions for Travel Demand Management
• References
• Back Cover