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I really hope China don’t follow U.S.'s mistake in making the society car-dependent. I have seen a lot of unfortunate hints in the recent years. At this point, it seems pretty inevitable by my eyes. Sincerely hope I am wrong.
They already did, while intercity rail is fast but you need a car or take the buses inside the cities
China is facing a massive traffic issue with cars that makes becoming a car-dependent society difficult. As their middle class becomes larger and wealthier, the amount of cars on the road has increased exponentially, far more than their road and highway systems were designed to handle. While the US has had over a century to build society around car ownership, China has to scramble in order to build enough infrastructure to accommodate all their new cars, a task much more difficult than building public transportation. Add in China’s heavy dependence on foreign oil imports compared to the US, and being a car centered society just doesn’t make sense for them
Of course, car dependent society makes sense for no country in this current world. Yet, many society makes the mistake of becoming one.
For example, I have seen a lot of empty lot in the Chinese cities has been transformed into large wide roads, much wider than most roads contructed before it.
That being said, I have not been in China for a while. I will definitely look closer next time I am here.
For me, I think the major problem is still the culture. China largely follows America’s culture 30 years ago, where car and single family is see as a symbol of wealth and power. Hopefully with the internet, people will realize that urban living is much more efficient and, most of the time, better for mental health.
They were trying to push high tech and advanced manufacturing. But with US putting trade restrictions on all kinds of high tech machinery they are now trying to improvise their plan with push for consumer-led growth.
This is going to end up making the world a worse place. We need less cars not more.
As a friendly reminder, when the author is talking about the economy what they’re really talking about is rich people’s yachts.
