Public transport and development of Chinese cities

Abstract

Although the process of development of large cities was tacitly supported in China ever since 1949, it did not actually gain its momentum until 1978, when China focused on export oriented industrialization, allowing a gigantic inflow of direct foreign investments to its so-called special economic zones open towns and triangles of development. As early as at the beginning of the 1990s, the automobile industry was decreed the foundation of economic development and this simultaneously represented the beginning of construction of an imposing network of urban and intercity roads. Having said this, China does not have any significant oil resources, as it used to be assumed. Such pro-automobile strategy in over populated China (with a clear aim: one automobile in one household) not only seriously damages the sustainable development of (extremely compact and densely populated) Chinese cities, but also dramatically threatens unrenewable global resources.

Iako je u Kini još od 1949. prećutno podržavan razvoj velikih gradova, ovaj proces stvarno dobija na zamahu tek nakon 1978. godine, kada se Kina orijentiše na izvoznu industrijalizaciju, omogućujući ogroman priliv direktnih stranih investicija u tzv. specijalne ekonomske zone, otvorene gradove i triangle razvoja. Već početkom 1990-ih, automobilska industrija se dekretom proglašava za osnovnu polugu privrednog razvoja, i ujedno započinje izgradnja impozantne mreže gradskih i međugradskih puteva. Pri tome, Kina nema "ozbiljne" izvore nafte, kao što se ranije pretpostavljalo. Ovakva proautomobilska strategija mnogoljudne Kine (sa jasno proklamovanim ciljem "jedan automobil na jedno domaćinstvo"), ne samo da ozbiljno ugrožava održivi razvoj (izuzetno kompaktnih, gusto naseljenih) kineskih gradova, već predstavlja i dramatičnu pretnju za neobnovljive globalne resurse.