WHAT strikes fear in the hearts of China's motorists? Pedestrians.
Seventy per cent of mainland Chinese respondents in a recent
Synovate survey attribute China's worsening traffic
problem to unruly pedestrians, second only to
rocketing private car ownership.
Pedestrians pose such a problem for China's
motorists that wardens with whistles and flags
are stationed at major intersections in the three
main cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Their job? "To stop people wandering across the
road against the traffic lights," says Synovate
China managing director Darryl Andrew.
The survey on traffic was conducted on over 5,500
respondents in China, Hong Kong, Spain, South
Africa, Hungary, Russia and the United Arab
Emirates (UAE). Each of these markets was asked
how many hours were spent in traffic everyday and
how their behaviour has changed to cope with the
daily ordeal.
About three-quarters of UAE respondents and half of
their counterparts in Hong Kong, Hungary and China
are on the road at least one hour everyday.
It appears that UAE residents in particular need
to steel themselves before getting into the car
for a drive – 42% say they sit in traffic
up to two hours everyday; four out of 10 claim
it's more than two hours.
"The Dubai authorities recognised that the road
infrastructure did not develop as fast as our
residential and business areas, and they are
addressing this need by building more flyovers
and intersections," says Andreas Gregoriou,
Synovate's managing director for the Arabian Gulf.
"These road works – evident all over Dubai –
have increased traffic congestion in the short term."
A similar survey conducted by Synovate some years ago
found that residents of Thailand, a country
notorious for its gridlocks, adapted by wisely
refusing to leave their neighbourhoods.
This year's survey saw fairly similar reactions.
Traffic can, and does, dictate where you live and
how your day is spent – except for Hong Kong, it
seems, where 44% of respondents say it hasn't
affected their lives one way or another.
The reasons why traffic is the monster it is vary,
with the most common gripe being too many cars and
not enough roads. If pedestrians are the menace in
China, "the road system ...including the
infrastructure and road works," is the problem in
Spain, says Madrid-based Synovate director Antonio
Malillos. More intervention from traffic police
could help, but not according to the Russians
and South Africans. About 40% of respondents
from both markets declare the traffic police
themselves are responsible for creating traffic.
