Next time you’re hauling through the congested freeways of Los Angeles, Chicago or New York, thank your lucky stars…because truck drivers in Beijing are suffering through a lot worse than just a few hours of rough traffic.
Drivers near the Chinese capital have likely been wishing their commercial truck insurance providers could provide traffic jam insurance since August 13th, and the so-far 10-day traffic jam on National Highway 110 is expected to last through September, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal Online.
Though China’s capital is under heavy construction to add alternate routes and build lane additions to the bottleneck freeways that cause the bulk of the congestion, experts say it’s those very construction projects that are temporarily causing the world-record delays.
The phenomenal traffic jam, where vehicles are moving at approximately 1/3 of a mile per day, is being attributed to a boom in middle-class auto purchases that’s surpassed the rate at which roads to accommodate them can be built.
Last year, Auto sales in China greatly surpassed those of the U.S. for the first time in the industry’s history—the Chinese bought over 13.5 million vehicles.
Though this traffic jam is freakishly unusual, the gridlock is not—it’s not unusual on even the best days of traffic for thousands of autos and commercial trucks to be lined up for miles along the main routes to Beijing.
Because shipping is greatly affected by the transit issues, costs are rising to account for the long delivery times.
To try to reverse the commercial trucking impact, city planners are attempting to expand mass transit systems in the form of subways, railroads and bus lanes.
But with the financial impact becoming problematic, maybe the idea of traffic jam truck insurance isn’t so crazy after all…
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