Managing Traffic Congestion-Case study of Hangzhou

Abstract: Hangzhou is located in the east of China as one of most important cities in Yangtze River delta. With the rapid development of economy in the last three decades, Hangzhou, like many other Chinese cities, has met some challenges. Traffic congestion in Hangzhou is the one I want to talk about in this master thesis. Traffic congestion became to trouble people’s lives in the past decade, following with dramatic urbanization. People spent much more time on travel, and their quality of lives were threatened. My thesis includes four parts: introduction of Hangzhou, theories and instruments on reducing traffic congestion, instruments have been used in Hangzhou, and recommendation for Hangzhou’s transportation. Firstly, Hangzhou’s background information was discussed. Population and number of vehicles can be seen as the main reasons for traffic congestion in Hangzhou. Also other problems are listed: old roads structure, mingling of different transits, low efficient of public transit, and poor management. There are policy and planning from national and local government, which is related to Hangzhou’s traffic system. At the end of this chapter I presented my research question: how to reduce Hangzhou’s traffic congestion. Secondly, I discussed theories and instruments have been used to reduce traffic congestion. Traffic principles were introduced: triple convergence and ‘offsetting by growth’, which should not be ignored when people talk about traffic congestion. Then I separated instruments, which used to reduce traffic congestion, into three parts: physical instruments, market instruments, regulatory instruments, and discussed some instruments in these three parts. Thirdly, my attention was focused on Hangzhou’s efforts on reducing traffic congestion. These instruments also can be divided into three parts. Since Hangzhou is in the process of urbanization, physical instruments were used most widely to reduce traffic congestion in Hangzhou. But few market instruments and regulatory instruments have been adopted. I compared instruments used in Hangzhou with other cities’ instruments, and analyzed effects of instruments used in these cites. Through comparison, I found that integrated instruments are necessary when people want to reduce traffic congestion. Only physical instruments or market instruments can not reduce traffic congestion efficiently. At last, I list some accomendations for Hangzhou to reduce traffic congestion, which could be classified as supply side instruments and demand side instruments. Hangzhou has put many efforts in supply side, but few in demand side, and this unbalance between supply side and demand side makes effects of reducing traffic congestion limited. In general, supply side approaches are similar with physical instruments, and demand side approaches are similar with market instruments and regulatory instruments. Hangzhou should continue to improve physical instruments, such as improving public transport system, which can gives people more choices for traveling. Also Hangzhou should put much more efforts on demand side instruments, which can control private cars directly.