A consensus is forming around the need for public transport to take on the pollution and inconvenience created by urban traffic.

The situation had its clearest expression during the public hearing on the price of subway tickets on Wednesday in Beijing, when 80 percent of the participants said they supported the formula of a 2 yuan ticket for all riders on all routes, no matter how many stops they travel.

At present, the cheapest subway ticket in Beijing is 2 yuan, while the most expensive is 5 yuan. If the new price formula is adopted, the capital will have the cheapest subway fares in the country.

Beijing's municipal government last year said it would set aside 2 billion yuan (US$260 million) a year to subsidize the price of bus tickets, lowering the cost of a ticket to 1 yuan, or 0.40 yuan for people who use stored-value cards. The move slashed the cost of public transport for residents by a big margin.

It is hoped the municipal government's decision to lower the prices of subway tickets will both make concrete the principle of public transit and also return some of the tax money that people pay in the form of transport benefits.

That municipal government authorities are treating the policy as a long-term prospect rather than a matter of expediency indicates that they have finally identified where the real problem is - that the city's increasingly congested traffic and pollution from car emissions have become pressing hazards.

It is apparent that the purpose of cheap and convenient public transport is not just to benefit lower-income residents, but also to have the long-term effect of alleviating the pressure caused by the ever-increasing number of cars on the roads.

Cheaper tickets are one way of widening the cost gap between using public transport and driving cars. The larger the gap is, the more likely it is that people will give up driving in favor of buses and subways.

Many Chinese cities have in recent years gone out of their way to widen their roads to encourage residents to drive their own cars. But the craze has yielded bitter fruit. Local governments are finding it hard to accept the increasingly congested traffic.
We hope that the trail Beijing has blazed in prioritizing public transport will set an example for the rest of the country.

(China Daily September 28, 2007)