Beijing traffic from Street to Motorway

The student study group stayed at a hotel near Remnin University a few metro stops from the city centre. I was interested in the streetscape generally and took a few video sequences to illustrate how it feels. The eight sequences in this posting start with local streets and pedestrian traffic, and move through streets to arterials, shopping mall areas, and motorways...

This sequence is a moderately busy intersection in a residential area.

This street scene is in a quieter area, gives a feel of street life around a medium density residential area.

This sequence is filmed from the bus as we drove along the street where our Hotel was located. It gives a feel of street life, the behaviour of traffic, and how streets are used.

This was also filmed from the bus. Stopped at traffic lights at a busy arterial intersection in the morning during reasonably heavy traffic. You can see at the start a group of residents doing their morning exercises...

This major arterial intersection is where a number of large malls are located and various office buildings. It gives an idea of the width of streets - which are full of traffic during peak times. While pedestrians can cross when they have the "green man" turning traffic and traffic entering the intersection appears to take priority. You walk at your peril. You need to be on the lookout...

This was also filmed at an area of Beijing where there were a number of very large malls. I was here with a group of students sampling the electronic wares...

This shot is from the bus travelling along a busy arterial - typical of the many arterials in Beijing. The central lanes are taken by heavy traffic and public transport bus lanes - you will see a bus stop with people waiting the next bus - and these central lanes are divided by a planted median from a traffic corridor adjacent to the pavement and shop frontages. This low speed high friction corridor is used by pedestrians, bikes and low speed scooters and suchlike.

 And here's the bus entering the Beijing motorway system. There are sound barriers and significant planting and gardening mitigation features. Generally, planting and greening activities are oberved in and along many arterials and motorways in Beijing. It appears there was a lot of planting in the lead up to Beijing Olympics 4 years ago, but it is also likely that Beijing needed to compete with the image of Shanghai - a very green feeling city by comparison.