Cleaner Greener China

Nearly 9 months ago Dr Wu Hongyang of the Ministry of Transportation gave a presentation entitled Benchmarking Efficiency of Sustainable Urban Transport in China that lists what he views as 7 key challenges going forward:

1. Capacity Building to Adapt to Socio-Economic Needs
2. How to relieve the transport congestion and improve transport efficiency？
3. While the needs of the reasonable private car can be meet, how to minimize its negative impacts?
4. How to support the economic development by improving the reliability and service quality of the public transport？
5. How to reduce transport pollution and emissions( including air pollution and noise) and improve the energy efficiency to achieve the clean and healthy transport systems？
6. How to improve the social equity by providing multi transport services (including bicycles, walking, buses, and rural buses)？
7. How to provide safer urban road and transport systems to promote the increasing of the city’s competence？

To these though, I would add the following:

• Begin classifying and considering trade transport as part of this picture
• Continue funding development of alternative fuel based modes of transportation
• Development of urban planning policies that reduce the reliance on/ need for automobiles

For more on this, I would also highly suggest the Environmental Defense Fund document Non-Motorized Vehicles in Asia: Lessons for Sustainable Transport Planning and Policy and the Asia Development Bank’s Transport Planning and Traffic Management for Better Air Quality