Life in the slow lane: Traffic survey in China and Hong Kong
8 十二月 2005
HONG KONG — 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 half of respondents from Hong Kong and China are on the road at least one hour everyday. Both markets were above average for long periods spent sitting in traffic.
"Private car ownership in China has rocketed over the past few years - it has more than doubled. And this is set to continue, with China now behind only the US and Japan in terms of the number of cars being manufactured," Mr Andrew said.
"With the rapid growth of affluence expected to march relentlessly on, we can anticipate more cars on the roads and even more gridlocks in our major cities."
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.
Synovate's managing director for Hong Kong, Ms Jill Telford, said: "Hong Kong is a comparatively small city in terms of area with excellent public transport so this explains some of the better than average scores. Many people have the luxury of living near work and consider a ten minute commute about nine minutes too long!
"However, Hong Kong is very fast-paced and its people are impatient. So while the infrastructure is good compared to many cities, people have zero tolerance for waiting," she said.
By contrast, Chinese city dwellers are conditioned to waiting with Mr Andrew observing: "People are tolerant because, although transport infrastructure improvements haven't been able to keep pace with population pressures, it is likely that they have achieved a better quality of life in other respects."
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 an extra menace in China, selfish and / or uneducated drivers coupled with never-ending road works are the culprits in Hong Kong.
This traffic study was conducted in October 2005 via a Synovate Global Omnibus telephone survey. These are regularly conducted in 55 countries across the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. There were 505 respondents from Hong Kong and 1,532 in China from the cities of Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.
Synovate traffic survey results
Download survey results (PDF, 73Kb)
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Linda Collard
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Henrietta Sung
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Synovate, the market research arm of Aegis Group plc, generates consumer insights that drive competitive marketing solutions. The network provides clients with cohesive global support and a comprehensive suite of research solutions. Synovate employs over 6,400 staff across 62 countries.
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