Has Beijing’s Traffic Actually Improved?

Last spring Beijing released a congestion index suggesting that traffic times had improved. Now IBM may have reached the same conclusion in their latest ranking of longest commute times. Yes, that's right: Beijing no longer holds court at the scorned #1 spot.

IBM’s study places Beijing third in the list of most "painful" cities based on commute times; Mexico City and Shenzhen beat out our fair city by placing #1 and #2, respectively. No specific times were given for Beijing, but the average one-way commute in the city falls somewhere south of Mexico City’s 40 minutes. The image below shows the overall scores based on ten factors including commuting time, time stuck in traffic, and effects of the traffic on anger and stress levels.

Additional findings from the study: “In Beijing and Shenzhen, anger from traffic is by far the highest among the cities surveyed, while in New Delhi, Shenzhen and Beijing, huge numbers of drivers have simply turned around and gone home rather dealing with the frustration of their intended journey.”

Interestingly, some of the cities that came out with the least painful commutes (such as London and Stockholm) have implemented congestion charges in the last decade, a move that has recently been proposed for Beijing.

Or could there be another reason behind Beijing’s improvement? A new fleet of 5-year old drivers could be the answer to the problem. Their driving can’t be any worse than those already on the road.

Photos: beijing, IBM.com, echinecities.com