Friday, October 9, 2015

Giant traffic jam is China’s real slowdown

Thousands of cars stuck in Beijing traffic Jam on 50-lane highway

The next time you’re stuck in a traffic with a tired wife and whiny kids, just be thankful you’re not stuck for hours in a 50-lane “carmageddon”

Thousands of Chinese motorists coming home after the week-long national holiday known as Golden Week got stuck in what CityLab called “every commuter’s worst nightmare.”

Despite 50 lanes, the G4 Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway, one of the country’s busiest roads, was turned into miles-long parking lot.

The culprit of the “carpocalypse” was a new checkpoint that forces traffic to merge from 50 lanes down to just 20, according to the People’s Daily.

The sad part is this was no fluke. China has made traffic jams into an art form. And if you’re reading this on your phone while you’re sitting in this actual traffic jam, just know it could be worse. In 2010, 10,000 vehicles were stuck for 12 days on 74 mile (120 km) stretch of road, after construction turned into hundreds of fender benders. Asia Unhedged reporting

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