Comments on: At Least Beijing Can Do It

By: kfarr

kfarr — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 07:36:49 +0000

Let’s make that the next referendum vote: Do you support the election of a transit dictator for the City? You’ll have my vote, as long as it’s a good dictator.

By: Zig

Zig — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 03:32:12 +0000

I was beat to it but my comment is Democracy is a bitch sometimes

I am pretty certain they don’t do blue ribbon panels or solicit community input in China

Of course I am kidding …

but I personally am all for more top down planning than is currently considered acceptable in America. We have to much democracy in California

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:29:37 +0000

Hence my last remark about seeking a “reasonable middle ground.” That said, a pro-transit benevolent dictator might be just the thing to clean up Bay Area transit once and for all. :)

By: Jeffrey W. Baker

Jeffrey W. Baker — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:05:04 +0000

Despotism has some advantages, after all.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:26:45 +0000

It’s also worth noting that even in light of the expansion, Beijing still managed to cut its subway fares recently, and the city also plans to add a few thousand buses to further complement its expanding rail network.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:08:59 +0000

I’m not extremely familiar with the factors at play in Beijing, and I’ve never been there or had the chance to ride their subway — but, a couple guesses. One reason why transit infrastructure improvement in the U.S. takes so long is because it takes so long to find funding and put together enough small pieces of money from many different sources — from local to federal — in order to have enough to finish the project, and each of those pieces of funding is associated with some grant process. Beijing just seems to have made this a priority — not only is there a lot of government money, but also a lot of private investment, and even some international investment, in light of the Olympics.

Digging up the urban environment, and everything that entails — working around a dense existing population, relocating utilities and prepping the street — adds delay. Like NY, it seems like Beijing uses the word “subway” even though some lines will travel on the surface part of the time, and I believe that at least parts of these new lines, maybe even whole lines, will be above ground.

These lines are not all equivalent to a Second Avenue subway, in terms of working in a dense urban environment, which also helps speed up construction. For instance, one of the new lines is set to serve Yizhuang, which has a development plan but is not entirely developed. You can check out this site to see a few pictures of that area. It’s definitely not New York. Good urban planning, though — at least their development is accompanied by a subway line. Another line is going to Daxing, which, as far as I can tell, is also more suburban in nature.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:08:47 +0000

Five years for a project that size is amazing. It makes me wonder if they have anything else going in their favor – are they digging through an already established urban locale? I know in NY the level of cr*p going on under the streets necessitates very slow, careful progress.