Explained: The reversible lane technology used by China to ease traffic woes

In China, robots separate packages, serve people in restaurants and even teach students in schools. They are now also managing the country’s notorious traffic. On Wednesday, Twitter lit up when the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying shared a video showing the working of reversible lanes that help improve traffic flow in China.

“Here’s how they do it. The traffic authority selects a lane to go one direction in the morning and the opposite direction in the evening to release peak pressure,” Chunying explained in the caption. #ChinaInfrastructure: How does Beijing relieve traffic jams? By changing the direction of traffic.

Here’s how they do it. The traffic authority selects a lane to go one direction in the morning and the opposite direction in the evening to release peak pressure. pic.

twitter. com/OaaxycwDJQ— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) August 31, 2022Since being shared, the short clip has racked up more than 95,000 views, with several internet users applauding the idea. How does this technology work? Is China the first to use it? Here are the answers to these questions and much more.

Reversible lanes and zipper trucksReversible lanes allow traffic on multi-lane roads to be changed to accommodate heavy traffic moving in one direction at certain times and the opposite direction at others. Typically, they are used at regularly scheduled times for helping to manage traffic near and within metropolitan areas. Reversible lanes also allow traffic authorities to close or reverse lanes for unusual circumstances (road construction, an accident, sporting events, concerts, etc) that require more or fewer lanes to help improve traffic flows.

This is considered as a simple, yet effective, method of managing traffic and improving its flows. In this method, either a robot or a truck as seen in the Chinese video move the meridian barriers on one side of the road to accommodate more cars during certain times of the day like rush hour. The zipper truck contains an S-shaped, inverted conveyor channel in its undercarriage which lifts the barrier segments off the road surface and transfers them over to the other side of the lane, reallocating traffic lanes to accommodate traffic for the dominant (peak) direction.

Not only ChinaThis technology is not specific to China. In fact, the first time that this technology was used was back in 1963 on the famous San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. In China itself, similar technology has been used in 2016 in Shenzhen in Guangdong province.

Other cities such as Beijing, Changsa, Nanjing and Jinan have also adopted this technology to adjust rush-hour traffic. Florida in the United States and Mexico are a few other places which have adopted this innovation to tackle the problem of traffic. China’s traffic woesChina has a chronic problem of traffic jams, and it continues to be an issue for authorities.

China has been struggling with high congestion levels in the last decade, resulting from population growth in the cities and rising car ownership rates. Another reason that could attribute to the traffic snarls in China is rampant corruption; many car drivers are not trained by professionals and therefore, the country has a large number of accidents. Experts also note that like older cities around the world, many of China’s cities are not designed for cars.

They are also not designed to support the massive populations they now boast. As a result, in many cities, the roads are simply not big enough. In 2010, China made international headlines when a traffic snarl lasted for nine days near Beijing.

Reports had stated that vehicles, mostly lorries bound for Beijing, were in a queue for about 100 km because of heavy traffic, road works and breakdowns. With inputs from agenciesRead all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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