Building a new world (Jinan) - Transport Climate Change and the City - page 214

6 Building a new world (Jinan)

You must picture the consternation of our little town, hitherto so tranquil, and now, out of the blue,
shaken to its core, like a quite healthy man who all of a sudden feels his temperature shoot up and
the blood seething like wildfire in his veins.

(Albert Camus, The Plague , 1947, p. 13)

Introduction
The first urban settlements in the People's Republic of China emerged some 4,000 years ago, 1
ranking as one of the earliest civilisations globally. The area around the Yellow River was
the cradle of Chinese development, with a written history emerging as early as the Shang
Dynasty (1700-1046 BC ) and the origins of Chinese culture, literature and philosophy developed
during the Zhou Dynasty (1045-256 BC ). In the years since there have been successive waves
of dynasties, immigration, expansion and assimilation; innovation and cultural development;
and huge change in terms of lifestyles and travel (Ma, 2009). Many Chinese cities are now
developing rapidly. In terms of transport they are suffering from severe and worsening transport
problems, including congestion, increasing energy use and emissions, a lack of mobility for
excluded groups and an increasing casualty rate. This urban transport crisis results from
continuing population growth, suburban sprawl, rising incomes and increased motorisation
and use (Pucher et al., 2007).
Achieving sustainable mobility in urban areas in China is one of the most challenging
problems facing international city development. The scales of growth in the Chinese economy
and the resulting developmental aspiration and migration are unprecedented; the economy is
the fastest growing in the world, and alongside there is a huge growth in motorisation. There
are therefore important Camus-like questions of the human condition and how to improve this
within the domain of transport and city planning. There are many irrationalities in the trends,
some adverse impacts seem inevitable, and perhaps we have less control than we imagine or
would like.
China is experiencing a rapid expansion of existing cities and development of new cities.
Table 6.1 shows the level of urbanisation in China, with eleven cities currently at over
5 million population (at the urban area level), and three of these at over 10 million - Chongqing,
Shanghai and Beijing. The wider metropolitan populations are even larger. An additional 300
million Chinese rural dwellers are likely to move to cities over the next 20 years, meaning
that up to 75 per cent of the population will live in urban areas. The scale of urban development
in China is hence much larger than that being considered elsewhere, with important transport
implications again due to the scale. The urban developmental experience is also unique in