Editor’s note: As part of our strategy over at the Journal of World Transport Policy and Practice, we are placing this summary introduction to the latest number of the journal to the New Mobility Thinkpad here for your information and comment. To access the full volume all you have to do is click the above title. Let us know what you think of this, as well as any other ideas you might have for importing the journal and its potential impact on policy and practice in our troubled sector.
Eric Britton
World Transport Policy & Practice
Volume 12, Number 4
© 2006 Eco-Logica Ltd.
Editor
Professor John Whitelegg
Stockholm Environment Institute at York, Department of Biology, University of York, P.O. Box 373, York, YO10 5YW, U.K
Editorial Board
Eric Britton
Managing Director, EcoPlan International,
Centre for Technology & Systems Studies,
8/10 rue Joseph Bara, F-75006 Paris, FRANCE
Professor John Howe
Independent Transport Consultant, Oxford, U.K
Mikel Murga
Leber Planificacion e Ingenieria, S.A., Apartado 79, 48930- Las Arenas, Bizkaia, SPAIN
Paul Tranter
School of Physical Environmental & Mathematical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra ACT 2600, AUSTRALIA
Publisher
Eco-Logica Ltd., 53 Derwent Road, Lancaster, LA1 3ES, U.K Telephone: +44 (0)1524 63175
E-mail: j.whitelegg@btinternet.com
http://www.eco-logica.co.uk/WTPPhome.html
Contents
Abstracts & Keywords 3
Editorial 5
John Whitelegg
Introduction 7
Joseph Szyliowicz and Zhou Wei
The Development and Current Status of China’s Transportation System 10
Wei Zhou, Joseph S. Szyliowicz
Transport-Related Resource and Environmental Issues in China 17
Jiang Yulin & Feng Liguang
Business, Management and Planning for Sustainable Transportation Development 29
Wang Yuanqing & Li jiangying
Transportation Related Socio-Economic Issues in China 35
Feng Liguang
Rural Transportation (Adaptability and Fund Policy) 41
Li Yang
Strategy Vision and Policy Recommendations on China’s Sustainable Transportation 46
Wei Zhou & Joseph S. Szyliowicz
Abstracts & Keywords
The Development and Current Status of China’s Transportation System
Wei Zhou, Joseph S. Szyliowicz
This paper analyses the development and current status of China’s Transportation System in detail, including the main aspects such as transportation infrastructure, equipment, transport management structure etc. Meanwhile, it also points out some crucial problems and challenges facing Chinese transportation development, including Investment of transportation infrastructure construction and maintenance, construction of integrated transport system, Costs of Transportation and transportation technical capacity building issues.
Keywords
Transportation infrastructure, equipment, management structure, integrated transport system, maintenance
Transport-Related Resource and Environmental Issues in China
Jiang Yulin & Feng Liguang
This paper analyses the status of transport-related energy and environmental and problems in China. The great challenges facing the energy and environmental development strategy in China are also discussed. Specific policy recommendations for sustainable transport energy and environment development are also advanced to provide effective references for government and decision-makes in the Chinese transport sector.
Key words
Sustainable Development, Transport Energy, Transport Environment, Pollution, Energy Consumption
Business, Management and Planning for Sustainable Transportation Development
Wang Yuanqing & Li jiangying
We discuss the Chinese transportation system according to the present and developing trends of business, management and planning. The Chinese market reforms began with economic changes and have achieved remarkable results in the past 20 years. So, in order to establish a sustainable transportation system, we must promote linkages to the government’s management goals and organizational reforms.
Keywords
Sustainable transportation, business, management, planning
Transportation Related Socio-Economic Issues in China
Feng Liguang
This paper analyses the transportation-related issues in China, including the state of transportation investments, transportation social equity, transportation related health issues, transportation efficiency and the state of rural road construction, etc. The paper then advances some actual recommendations for realising sustainable transportation development in China.
Keywords
Transportation Socio-Economic issues, Transportation Equity, Transportation Safety
Rural Transportation
(Adaptability and Fund Policy)
Li Yang
Although China has made great achievements in rural road construction, it still cannot meet the demands for development of the social economy in rural areas. To achieve Chinese rural roads’ general development goals, it is essential to obtain construction funds. Accordingly, this article analyses the present financing system of Chinese rural roads and advances suggestions for a Funding Policy for the Development of Rural Roads that conforms to China’s national conditions. “Rural roads” in this paper refers to county roads, town roads and village roads.
Key words
Rural roads; Financing; Fund Policy
Strategy Vision and Policy Recommendations on China’s Sustainable Transportation
Wei Zhou & Joseph S. Szyliowicz
Based on the discussion and analyses of the issues and problems confronting China’s transportation system as presented in the other papers, we advance a strategic vision and specific policy recommendations that are designed to promote the development of a sustainable transportation system in China.
Keywords
Strategic Vision, Policy Recommendations, Sustainable Transportation, Economic and other policy measures, administration, External Impacts
Editorial
John Whitelegg
A special issue on China is long overdue. China has achieved remarkable progress with its economic growth and poverty reduction programmes but the time is now ripe to take stock. In a globalised world of huge international trade flows, oil dependency, climate change problems and foreign policy interdependence it is right that this stock taking should be both external and internal. The world has a huge interest in China’s development path and its future trade balances, greenhouse gas emissions and ability to acquire increasingly large shares of available oil. Equally China has a legitimate role in commenting and, if appropriate, criticising those countries like the USA and the UK that have achieved rich country status on the back of very similar process of economic growth, industrialisation, urbanisation and trade. This criticism would be especially deserved if there was a hint of humbug or “don’t do what I did” in any stock taking of China.
China presents us all with the opportunity to comment on and resolve a dilemma. Success in economic growth must eventually come up against the disbenefits and problems associated with air pollution, congestion, loss of agricultural land, health impacts (including the 250,000 Chinese who die each year in road crashes) and societal stress associated with large scale migration and urbanisation. It would not be surprising if these processes were also associated with rising inequalities between rich and poor and rising environmental injustice as the poor bear the brunt of the pollution and the rich escape to more salubrious settings just as they did in 19th century Britain. The question for China but also for all of us is how do we create a high quality of life that does not propagate the disbenefits? The question is tough and more often dodged than addressed in an open and honest manner but China’s huge economic successes requires us all to re-evaluate our commitments to business as usual scenarios.
At the moment the USA, Australia and the European Union are all demonstrating a crude commitment to economic growth based on yet more infrastructure, more traffic, more congestion and more pollution. There is a touching belief that technology will rescue us but most know that technological gains are very easily cancelled out by growth in consumption. This has always been the case with traffic and continues to be the case with cars, trucks and aircraft. This deep commitment to growth and development is blind to social and environmental consequences but also means that we have very little to offer to China when it comes to alternative development paths. The stark implication of growing non-sustainability and growing global problems is that no one is able to offer leadership. Most of the world’s leaders are committed to the business as usual (BAU) model and have no authority to argue another course. They are long on the rhetoric of sustainable development but short on the practical implications of delivering lower levels of traffic and lower levels of flying. The growth of China as a world power with record rates of economic growth has exposed the moral and ethical bankruptcy of so-called developed countries. We can only observe with awe and fascination as Chinese levels of resource exploitation, pollution, greenhouse gases and loss of nature threaten regional, national and global sustainability. There are doing what “we” did only much better.
This special issue concentrates on transport in China which is a key indicator of the scale of the disbenefits associated with BAU. The articles display intuition, insight and creativity around the ways we can deal with transport problems and they contain much that will help to create a China that is healthier, cleaner and smarter than what is currently on offer.
Sadly the potential to influence China in the way that it might develop its cities and transport systems is severely diminished by the lack of intelligence, leadership and courage on the part of those developed nations that could have charted a clear course towards sustainable transport and sustainable mobility. The world is a more polluted and dangerous place because of this lack of courage.
John Whitelegg
Editor
· See page 36 for numbers on road traffic mortality – compare to WHO figures (of more than double)
Introduction
Joseph Szyliowicz and Zhou Wei
The remarkable economic growth that China has achieved in recent decades has been accompanied by the extensive development of its transportation system. Since the adoption of the economic reform and opening-up policy in 1978, the government, recognising that transportation plays an extremely important role in promoting socio-economic development and in improving the quality of life, has promoted the rapid growth of all the modes. Accordingly, by 2004 the rail network was the 3rd largest in the world, the road system the fourth largest, the expressways ranked second, and the airline passenger volume was the third largest. Furthermore, the long existing weaknesses of its transportation system have obviously been alleviated.
This expansion has not, however, taken place in an integrated manner or with adequate attention to its social, economic and environmental implications. At the same time, there has been a rapid and dramatic increase in automobile production and vehicle ownership. What was once a country where most people travelled by bicycle, a healthy and environmentally friendly mode, has become one with highly congested and polluted urban areas, regional imbalances, a high accident rate, a heavy and increasing dependency on oil imports, and serious distortions in social equity. In short, despite its tremendous achievements, China’s transportation system still confronts many serious problems that have to be resolved if is to contribute to national development in a sustainable manner. And, given China’s enormous population creating such a system has obvious implications for the entire world. The recent global rise in oil prices, for example, is partially due to China’s increased demand for oil.
Recognising the seriousness of this situation and the potential for change, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) decided, in November 2003, to establish the Sustainable Transportation Task Force. The CCICED, established in 1992 by the Chinese Government, following an international environment conference held in Beijing in October 1990, is a high level non-governmental advisory body with the purpose “to further strengthen cooperation and exchange between China and the international community in the field of environment and development.” For the past ten years, the Council has been successful in articulating high-level advice and assisting Chinese decision-makers to better understand the links between environmental protection and economic development. Due partly to the Council’s influence, the Chinese Government is increasingly effective in defining and implementing long-term integrated environmental strategies and policies. The Council’s recommendations are part of the input used by relevant ministries to develop policies and incorporate environmental considerations in their five-year planning process and the Council has contributed to a better public understanding and awareness of environmental issues in China. (www.cciced.org )
The Sustainable Transportation Task Force was charged with implementing a project entitled "strategy and policy for the development of sustainable transportation in China" with the goal of providing the government with a coherent and integrated strategy and policy framework for the future. It was a multinational, interdepartmental, and interdisciplinary research team, jointly led by Professor Zhou Wei, President of the China Academy of Transportation Sciences (CATS), and Professor Joseph S. Szyliowicz (Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver (U.S.A.), founder of the University’s Intermodal Transportation Institute.
Established in 1960, the China Academy of Transportation Sciences (CATS) is an innovative research institute subordinate to the Ministry of Communications. Its staff, consisting of over 350 professional technicians, more than 120 of whom are senior professionals, has conducted a wide range of studies ranging from strategy and policy for integrated transportation development to logistics and data processing. For this project, CATS also involved researchers from the Ministry of Communication, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Railway, the Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, and Tongji University. The international experts were or had been affiliated with such institutions as the World Bank, the European Union, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Energy, the America Energy Foundation, the Italian Department of Environment, and the World Resources Institute.
After its establishment, the Task Force established four sub groups (strategy and administration, urban transportation, rural roads, environment and energy) which carried out such research projects as the following: (1) the development and current status of China's transportation system (infrastructure, equipment and capacity); (2) the administration, management and planning of transportation (coordination, capacity, and efficiency); (3) transportation-related energy and environmental issues (pollution and land take, etc); (4) transportation-related socio-economic issues (road traffic accidents, health and social equity); (4) rural transportation (adequacy and financing); (5) urban transportation (land use, growth patterns, public transit, etc); and (6) the role of transportation-related fiscal and monetary policies in China (congestion charges, fuel taxes, etc).
Based on this research, the Task Force developed and presented two specific reports containing proposals that are consonant with China's condition and needs to the Chinese government. These were: "A Strategy and Policy Framework for the Development of a Sustainable Transportation System" and "Policy Recommendations on Establishing and Maintaining a Sustainable Transportation System". The research projects and these two reports have already attracted great attention from China’s central and local governments. The articles that follow draw upon these projects and reports and are designed to provide transportation professionals and colleagues throughout the world with insights into the work of the Task Force and a better understanding of China’s current transportation system and the kinds of reforms that are required in order to make it into a truly sustainable s
