Motorcycle taxis see need for speed
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Motorcyclists wait for customers on Huaihe Road in Hefei. |
'We're fast!'
Yin Xiaoqing, 25, has been living in London for three years, but she still remembers her traffic trials in Hefei in 2007, when two flyover streets (overpasses) were being built and work was being done on several main surface roads.
Yin taught English through a training school, and the job often required her to get from one student to another, sometimes kilometers away, in 30 minutes. After arriving late several times because of unexpected traffic jams, she hired a motorcyclist to pick her up.
Motorcycle cabs were not as common as today, so Yin kept one rider's mobile phone number to use when she needed a ride.
"It was funny to see Yin sitting on the back of a motorcycle," said Qiao Jing, one of her colleagues. "It looked like a female member of gangland. But many of us started using them to arrive in class on time. Now many of us ride motorcycles or electric bicycles ourselves."
Han Rui started picking up fares on his motorcycle a year after Yin became a steady passenger. At the time, most motorcycle taxis gathered downtown, where traffic often was at a standstill. But now riders can find fares at main street corners, school gates and residential districts. The traffic problems are widespread.
"Our busiest hours are during commuting hours and mealtime," Han said. "People rush to work or to fancy restaurants for a gathering. It is also the time that traffic jams are most serious and we can show our advantage best - we're fast!"
Chen Jinshui, who drives a standard taxi in Hefei, said he feels pressure from his passengers from time to time.
" 'Hurry up' is something I hear most from passengers," he said, "but I also feel bad about this. How can I hurry up when I have a queue of cars stuck in front of me?"
'City has changed'
Chen has been a cabbie for more than seven years. He and his family grew up as farmers in southern Hefei, overlooking Chaohu Lake, but in 2006 their land was designated for development into the Binhu district and they needed a new way of earning money.
The district, about 196 square kilometers, was designed for 1.2 million residents. The construction started in 2006, and people began moving in two years later. It is becoming increasingly developed, having city administrative centers, schools and hospitals.
"The city has changed a lot during the past several years," Chen said. "When I started driving, there were no flyover highways. Now there are four. I cannot imagine how terrible the traffic jams would be if there were no flyover streets today."
Two additional overpasses are being built, and since 2006 the city also has constructed many underground crossroads, which also help keep traffic moving. Still, traffic jams up from 5 pm to 7 pm at the flyover on Jinzhai Road, which was the city's busiest street in the 1990s.
"I usually play the radio in my cab," Chen said, "and I tune to the channel that tells stories all day so my passengers will focus on the stories instead of the traffic jam. Everyone is rushing to their destinations in the long queue, yet there is not much we can do."
Binhu is about 12 kilometers from downtown, and a new bus line - Bus Rapid Transit No 1 - started service a few months after the district opened in 2007. Three additional bus routes now serve Binhu, and the district's own shuttle bus started running in October.
"At that time, there were few people on the bus," said Zhang Xu, 25, whose family bought a house in Binhu in 2008.
On a Saturday afternoon last month, the line of people waiting for the No 1 bus reached to the top stairs of the bus station, which meant passengers had to wait for several buses to come through before they could board.
'Think ahead'
The situation is more closely resembling the traffic congestion in big cities such as Beijing. The local government has noticed.
During this year's sessions of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in March, many members from Hefei offered proposals to deal with the city's traffic.
Jiang Hongliu, a CPPCC member, suggested that the number of private cars be controlled and people encouraged to use public transport.
"Many big cities have suffered severely from traffic jams before they move on to the step of handling the problem," she said to a local reporter. "Since Hefei is developing at quite a fast speed, it is important for us to think ahead of the problem."
Private cars are still selling, but not as quickly. Data from the Anhui Statistics Bureau for the first quarter of 2011 show that car sales increased 16.5 percent from last year, but the rate of increase in sales slowed 32.2 percent from last year.
Zhang, the Binhu resident, bought a car for commuting to downtown in 2008. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
"I do not drive in the busiest traffic hours now," she said. "It was not until I started driving to work that I realized that finding a parking area, getting stuck in heavy traffic jams and paying 5 yuan an hour for parking are all very unpleasant. The joy of owning a car is just not as much as I imagined."
Two-wheel risks
Many people who have used motorcycle taxis report they were scared by the speed - or at least the sensation of it out in the open - and violations of traffic rules.
Freelancer Han knows the risks he faces to earn more than 2,000 yuan ($308) a month. That is why he and many motorcycle taxi riders wear helmets and have one for passengers as well. "Motorcycles are more dangerous than cars," Han said.
Hefei traffic police tallied 300 deaths last year from 677 accidents caused by motorcycles. Comparable figures for standard taxis last year are not available, but through April this year police have recorded eight taxi accidents with one fatality.
"Motorcycles have always been our focus of traffic controlling," said Rui Feng, a Hefei traffic police officer. "We adjust our focuses every week, yet motorcycles always remain as one of them.
"Many people take motor taxis because they want to save time and avoid traffic jams. In fact, the motor taxis disobeying traffic rules are making traffic conditions even worse in the city."
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