The Social Cost of Traffic Congestion and Countermeasures in Beijing

Abstract

Based on the application of congestion cost assessment methodologies, a congestion cost calculation process was analyzed and the construction of calculation models was deduced. According to the database of city traffic running status and the Statistical Yearbook 2010 in Beijing, the social cost of traffic congestion was calculated. The results show that traffic congestion costs about 58 billion Yuan RMB (4.22% of GDP) in Beijing in 2010, including time delay cost, extra oil combustion, traffic accident direct economic loss, vehicle loss cost, and environment pollutants. The proportion of GDP is higher than the same scale cities, such as New York, London and St. Paul. The most congestion cost comes from trips by car and the time delay cost is the main and direct social cost. For reducing vehicle congestion, this paper suggests that the government of Beijing should optimize city function of construction around the urban railway station to scatter the function in the central metropolitan area, and provide more hospitals, schools and jobs in the nearby area of the new railway station to reduce long distance trip demand.