Beijing to expand the scope of staggered working hours arrangement

On June 1, the General Office of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality issued a sixth-phase work plan on alleviating traffic congestion in downtown Beijing (2009). It also revealed that by the end of this year, the scope of the implementation of the staggered working hours arrangement will expand from department stores to party and government departments at all levels in Beijing.

The system of diversified paid parking rates, for which economists and transportation experts have requested for a long time, is also expected to be implemented this year in a bid to decrease the traffic in the central urban area.

Beijing CPC and government departments are to carry out staggering working  hours arrangement.

The scope of the arrangement's implementation will be expanded within the year

According to the plan, because a comprehensive network of rail transit and urban roads has not yet been fully developed, and the number of motor vehicles and the amount of travel continues to rise, Beijing is still under pressure from grave traffic congestion. This year, developing a public transportation system is still the main way of alleviating traffic congestion; 20 kilometers of a bus-only lane will be added, leading to a total length of 278.5 kilometers.

By 2012, the average speed on Beijing’s roads during morning and evening rush hours will be 3 percent higher than that of last year, and the proportion of travel made using public transport to all travel made in the urban area will climb to 45 percent.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Beijing launched a large-scale staggering working hours arrangement. Except for enterprises and public institutions or social organizations involved in city operations and services, all other enterprises (including those under supervision by state-owned assets administration agencies at all levels), all large-scale supermarkets, and all public institutions and social organizations other than schools, adjusted their working hours.