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Beijing Traffic Managers Confront Choices on 2025 Plan Tasks
City officials must decide priorities for the remaining elements of the 32-task program as weekday gridlock stretches longer than last year.
How we reported this
Beijing recorded an average of 100 minutes of weekday congestion during the first half of the recent year, 30 minutes longer than the prior period and accompanied by a traffic index of 5.0 out of 10.
The increase arrives while the city continues to enforce license-plate restrictions that bar certain vehicles from 7:00 to 20:00 on weekdays inside the 5th Ring Road. With roughly 6 million vehicles serving a population of 22 million, those rules remain the primary daily control on downtown traffic density.
Plan Tasks Still Under Way
The 2025 Beijing Comprehensive Traffic Management Action Plan lists 32 tasks, among them the opening of new segments on Line 17 and the southern extension of Line 6, the addition of 35,000 downtown parking spaces, and construction of 11.36 km of non-motorized vehicle lanes. Rush-hour speeds on major roads continue to average between 10 and 15 mph during the 6:30-9:00 a.m. and 4:00-7:00 p.m. windows, periods when the 29-line subway system functions as the dominant alternative for commuters.
Planners now weigh how quickly to advance the remaining subway segments and parking projects while monitoring whether the new non-motorized lanes ease pressure on the same corridors already subject to plate restrictions. The Beijing Subway, already the world’s largest by line count, absorbs much of the displaced demand during peak hours.
Next Steps for Implementation
City agencies will next determine sequencing for the balance of the 32 tasks, including how many additional parking spaces to open in the core area and which non-motorized corridors to complete first. Continued enforcement of the 5th Ring Road rules and expansion of subway capacity remain the two levers most directly tied to the recorded rise in congestion minutes.
Progress reports on Line 17, the Line 6 extension, and the 11.36 km of new lanes will shape those decisions in coming months, with the traffic index of 5.0 serving as one benchmark for whether the measures narrow the gap from the previous year.