Beijing's Worst Traffic of the Year Begins Sep 7

For at least the third year in a row, Beijing is expected to experience some of its worst traffic days of the year in September, beginning Sunday (Sep 6) and Monday.

Beijing municipal officials are predicting that September 6, 7, 11, 14, 18, 21, 24, and 25 will be among the most congested days of 2015, with people returning to work after the three-day holiday, and school starting throughout the city on Monday, September 7, CRI reported.  According to Beijing News, the 26 percent of students that are driven to school by their parents adds an additional 200,000 cars into the mix each day.

Interestingly, unlike in previous years, when Mid-Autumn Festival and the beginning of the October 1 holiday created pain points around themselves, neither September 27, the day after Mid-Autumn Festival, which is not a public holiday this year, nor the two days prior to latter, September 29 and 30, are predicted to be high-traffic days. Officials must be expecting a lot of Beijingers to hit the road early after the Mid-Autumn weekend.

Except for the last week of the month, every Monday and every Friday are expected to see heavy traffic, as is Thursday, September 24. 

Now might be a good time to tune up your bicycle or buy a new pair of walking shoes.

More stories by this author here.

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Photo: Wikimedia