Grasping New Opportunities for Road Traffic Development

From the Party’s 18th National Congress to the Central Economic Work Conference and then to the Central Rural Work Conference, the central government has repeatedly emphasized new urbanization and has carried out key deployments. This sends a strong signal at home and abroad that the new urbanization will become an important propeller for China's expansion of domestic demand and strategic adjustment of its economic structure. It will become a strategic fulcrum for inspiring China’s future development and realizing the “Chinese dream”. The party group of the Ministry of Transport clearly stated at the 2013 National Transport Work Conference that it is necessary to continue to strengthen the urbanization and the traffic construction in the contiguous and destitute areas. Traffic, especially road traffic, is an important basis for urbanization and the development of urban agglomerations. Traffic has led the development of urbanization and the development of transportation support for urbanization has become a consensus of many parties.

At present, according to the requirements of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission is leading the preparation of the National Urbanization Development Plan. In 2012, the urbanization rate in China reached 52.6%, which has reached the level of moderately developed countries. International experience shows that when the proportion of urban population in a country or region accounts for 50% of the total population, it will be at an accelerated stage of urbanization in the coming period. According to relevant experts, by 2020, the urbanization rate in China will reach about 60%. With the implementation of the urbanization development strategy, it can be expected that new urbanization will put forward new demands for highway transportation.

New Urbanization Brings New Strategic Opportunities for Highway Transportation Development

In the process of realizing a two-fold increase in the gross domestic product and the per capita income of urban and rural residents, the economic and social development has long been good. In the process of promoting the simultaneous development of industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization, especially during the process of urbanization, the demand for safe, reliable, economically efficient, convenient and comfortable transportation will continue to grow. From the macro-prediction and analysis of highway traffic volume, China’s vehicle ownership will exceed 200 million by 2020, which is 2 times that of 2010; in 2020 and 2030, the average traffic volume of 38 major highways in China will be The current 2.2 times and 4 times. By 2030, the average traffic volume of major passages in the eastern, central and western regions will reach an average of 162,000 vehicles per day, 92,000 vehicles and 61,000 vehicles.

According to the national "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", in the future, China will improve its urbanization layout and shape, and will follow the principle of overall planning, rational distribution, perfect function, and large and small, follow the objective law of urban development, and rely on large cities. Focusing on small and medium-sized cities, a city group with large radiation effects will be gradually formed to promote the coordinated development of large, medium and small cities and small towns. From the perspective of urbanization, the demand for the scientific development and transitional development of highway traffic will be highlighted on four levels: First, in the future, the country will deploy 20 or so urban agglomerations, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Chengyu and The development and prosperity of the urban clusters such as the middle reaches of the Yangtze River will require further improvement in the urban agglomeration's capacity for external main corridors, improvement of the intercity expressway network among cities within the urban agglomeration, and the development and growth of the central city, which will require further strengthening of traffic with surrounding cities. The network connection will increase the capacity of the trunk line network and promote the use of radiation. Third, the accelerating development of small and medium-sized cities. As the county and the town with good conditions and high potential will gradually develop into small and medium-sized cities, the demand for road traffic will undergo major changes and the city needs to be upgraded. External access and improve the surrounding road network structure; Fourth, focus on the development of small towns, need to strengthen the connectivity of small towns and neighboring cities, strengthen the connectivity of small towns and neighboring villages, and strengthen the upgrading of rural highways in counties and townships.

According to the new requirements of urbanization development, highway traffic needs to adhere to stability and progress, continue to speed up construction, improve the road traffic and transportation network; further accelerate the construction of the remaining sections of the national highway network, "bottleneck" road sections; traffic saturation roads, key cities The expansion of the roads in the surrounding areas will be carried out to enhance the capacity of traffic; the upgrading of national highways, especially the national roads newly incorporated into the national highway network, will be optimized, the national highway hierarchy will be optimized, and provincial road construction will be strengthened; the county roads and highways will be upgraded, and the basic road network service will be improved. . At present, the mileage of the national highway to be built is approximately 22,000 kilometers, the mileage below the national highway is approximately 96,000 kilometers, the mileage below the provincial highway is approximately 57,000 kilometers, and the mileage at and below the county-township highway is 1.215 million kilometers. The task of highway construction is very arduous.

Grasp the relationship between traffic development and urbanization

To accelerate the development of the transportation industry by focusing on building an integrated transportation system is an important prerequisite and basis for the accelerated development of urbanization. In the face of the new situation, transportation planning and construction guidance and support for urbanization have become important strategic considerations at the national level. Special attention must be paid to the handling of the two relationships:

The first is to play a "guidance" role and handle the relationship between transportation planning and urbanization planning. Traffic has a strong guiding role in urbanization. Cities historically located in transportation hubs are more likely to accumulate population and industries, which will bring prosperity to the city. During the new round of urbanization, highway traffic will show its broader spatial advantages, and cities or towns with convenient road traffic will inevitably have more inherent advantages. Therefore, on the one hand, we must fully consider the guiding role of the existing road network and planned road network for urbanization, and regard traffic location as one of the important basic conditions for urbanization; at the same time, urbanization planning must be based on the transportation support capability. Based on sufficient argumentation, in other words, if the land, environment and other conditions are limited, the transport capacity provided by the future traffic planning cannot meet the traffic demand predicted by urbanization in a certain area, and the urbanization plan must be repositioned and adjusted.

The second is to adhere to "moderately advanced" and handle the relationship between traffic construction and urbanization. Transportation is a basic, pilot, and service industry. Traffic construction must serve the construction of urbanization. The comprehensive transportation system including highway transportation must provide support and guarantee for urbanization. Highway traffic should adhere to the principles of appropriate advancement and stability, and road construction standards, traffic capacity and service levels should focus on the future development trend of urbanization and long-term needs, leaving room for urban space development, industrial development, and environmental development. To prevent the completion of the project from being a backward day, to avoid frequent upgrades caused by short-term predictions, it is necessary to grasp the balance between scale standards and resource-environment carrying capacity and funding possibilities, and improve the durability and reliability of road transport infrastructure. .

Strengthen Three Links and Effectively Promote Urbanization Construction

The demand put forward by urbanization for transportation will be multi-faceted and multi-type. The development of transportation must always meet the requirements of urbanization and service urbanization, always give priority to the people's livelihood and focus on improving the level of service security, and focus on strengthening the three Convergence.

First, attach importance to the construction of passenger and freight hubs and do a good job in the integration of transport modes in the comprehensive transportation system. To meet the demand of urbanization for passenger and cargo transportation to the greatest degree, we must fully play the function and role of various transport modes of the comprehensive transportation system in accordance with the requirements of optimizing the structure and exerting comprehensive benefits. The highway is the basic network of the comprehensive transportation system, and it undertakes long-distance transportation services of important channels together with railways, civil aviation, and inland rivers, and at the same time directly provides users with the most common and most extensive land and short-distance land transportation services. Therefore, we should strengthen the initiative to connect, accelerate the construction of integrated passenger transportation hubs that integrate the planning and design of roads and railways, airports, and urban rails, and build modern logistics parks that integrate the planning and design of highways, railways, and ports. At the same time, relying on comprehensive transportation hubs. Enhance the organic convergence of roads, railways, civil aviation, etc., with urban public transportation and private transportation, and provide a humanized and highly efficient passenger and cargo transportation system to promote the realization of "zero-distance passenger transfer" and "transport seamless connection" both inside and outside the city. ".

The second is to improve the relevant standards and make a good connection between urban traffic and highway traffic. Highway traffic directly serves the production and life of residents along the route, and there are different degrees of “streetization” within the urban agglomerations, near suburbs of big cities, and transit sections of medium and small cities. Reflecting on the repeated “scraping-rebounding-re-governance-re-bounce” between “streetization” and “de-street” over the years, we should rationally study and analyze the technical standards and urban roads in highly urbanized areas and suburban areas. Standard compatibility issues. For highly urbanized areas within urban agglomerations, road transport has actually assumed some of the functions of the urban roads. There are two options for this situation: First, to avoid completely mixing motor vehicles with non-motorized vehicles and pedestrians. The two sides of the entire line are closed or via a viaduct. However, if the above measures are taken, both sides must be equipped with urban roads to meet the needs of the surrounding residents; secondly, when the aforementioned separation measures cannot be or are not necessary, the highway design and construction standards will It is necessary to take into account the urban road standards and have relevant functions.

The third is to attach importance to basic public services and do a good job in connecting urban and rural public passenger transportation. China is a big energy importer and consumer. In recent years, China’s oil dependence on foreign countries has continuously increased. The proportion of oil imports has exceeded 56%, of which the transportation industry’s consumption of oil has reached more than 1/3 of the total consumption. Historical experience and rational analysis tell us that copying the parallel development model of Western urbanization and the popularization of private cars will enter the long-term resource and energy dilemma. China’s urbanized passenger transportation must take the lead in public transport with Chinese characteristics, and private cars are Auxiliary development model. In the process of urbanization, we must pay attention to the height of people's livelihood, do a good job of connecting urban and rural public passenger transport, promote the integration of urban and rural passenger transport, and establish and improve a public passenger service system that effectively covers cities and surrounding rural areas.

Deepen reform, strengthen policy research, resolve development problems

Deepening reform is an inevitable requirement for promoting the development of the transportation industry. In the process of urbanization, it is necessary to make breakthroughs through deepening reforms, perfecting policies, and optimizing institutional mechanisms in order to ensure that transportation service security is facing many new requirements, new issues, and new difficulties.

The first is to revise and improve the provincial road and county road transport planning. In June this year, the State officially approved the issuance of the “National Highway Network Plan (2013-2030)” (abbreviated as “Planning”). This is China's National Highway Trunk Road Network (Trial Scheme), 1981, 1992 After the National Road Trunkline System Plan and the 2004 National Highway Network Plan, the fourth national trunk road network was planned. "Plan" based on China's economic and social development, land and space development, urbanization, industrialization and other needs, proposed the construction of "two networks": common national highway network and the national highway network. After the National Road Network Bureau is made clear, all localities need to strengthen organizational leadership, carry out sub-level road network adjustments and revisions as soon as possible, and optimize the adjustment of provincial-level trunk line networks and county-township rural road network plans. Local highway networks directly serve the development of regional cities, especially small and medium-sized cities and small towns. The planning and adjustment of this round of road network should guide and support urbanization as one of the important footholds and guiding principles, while fully considering industrialization and informationization. And the requirements for the development of agricultural modernization.

The second is to strengthen financial support and crack capital bottlenecks. The land area of ​​China is similar to that of the United States. By 2030, the scale of the road network is also comparable to that of the United States. The investment in the US road network has positive reference value for judging the investment protection needed for the development of China's highway network. After World War II, in order to stimulate economic development and speed up highway network formation, the United States continued to increase its investment in highway construction. The proportion of highway investment in GDP continued to rise, during the peak period of its highway construction, from 1954 to 1972. There are 16 years of highway investment in the proportion of GDP more than 2%. Since 1972, the proportion of highway investment in GDP has gradually decreased, and it has basically remained stable since 1981. It has been maintained at a level of 1.3% to 1.4% so far. In comparison, since China accelerated the construction of the highway in 1984, the proportion of highway construction investment in GDP has increased year after year, of which highway investment accounts for more than 2% of GDP for 14 consecutive years. In 2013, highway construction completed an investment of 12,700 yuan. Billion, accounting for 2.4% of GDP. At present, in the road construction investment in China, government fiscal funds, including central vehicle purchase tax and local government investment at various levels, account for about 15%, bank loans account for 42%, and the rest are locally funded by various methods. . At present, the government's repayment of the secondary roads to cancel charges and other policies have been fully implemented, and the state is also increasing its efforts to clean up local debt. Under the general trend of gradual cancellation of ordinary highway tolls, ordinary secondary highways and below will not be able to obtain bank loans, and ordinary roads will now be combined with “one small and two big” financial investment, bank loans, and local self-raised funds. "Wagon" investment and financing model will be difficult to sustain. Solving the problem of funds for ordinary highway construction has become the most pressing issue in the current development of highway construction. Highways, especially non-charged ordinary roads, must be used as public welfare infrastructures. They must give full play to the main role of local governments at all levels, and should further increase the level of government finance for ordinary road construction in accordance with the requirements of the State Council issued [2011] No. 22 document. Investment, accelerate the construction of a long-term mechanism for investment in construction led by financial funds.

The third is to improve technology policies and improve the level of road traffic construction. Urbanization of highway construction should adhere to moderate advance. Adhering to a modest advance must establish the concept of “full life” life cycle, that is, to meet the transportation needs within the service life of highway design. The establishment of a modest advance on the concept of “full-life” means avoiding frequent remodeling in the short-term cycle, which means avoiding repeated investment and wasting resources. It means attaching importance to environmental protection and intensively using land resources. First, it is necessary to scientifically determine the standards for highway construction based on functions and traffic volume. In the industrial corridors and urban entrances and exits with strong traffic demand, the development of the first-class highways can be appropriately promoted, and the technical standards can be flexibly combined with the traffic volume and the topographic conditions. If the heights are appropriate, the heights should be high, low, and low, and the entire route standard should not be allowed. Across the board." Second, it is not appropriate to regard upgrade level as the goal and direction of highway construction. Instead, it should focus on practical needs and focus on accelerating the construction of bottlenecks and weak links. Third, according to the size of the city, the characteristics of travel demand, and the street conditions of road sections, scientific planning and construction of urban transit highways shall be based on local conditions and be combined in the near and far to differentiate the way of urban and rural road transit. Fourth, it should be synchronized with the main project transformation planning, synchronous construction of road safety facilities, management facilities and necessary service facilities, promote traffic safety assessment on specific sections, and carry out special planning, design and construction of safety facilities and management facilities.