According to a study, traffic congestion in 77 percent of Chinese cities has significantly eased in the second quarter compared to last year, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reports.
The research was jointly conducted by digital map provider Amap, China Academy of Transportation Sciences with the Ministry of Transport, Tsinghua University-Daimler AG Sustainable Transport Research Center, Alibaba Cloud Computing Co. Ltd. and bicycle-sharing company Ofo.
The results showed that among the 100 cities monitored, 77 experienced an easing of traffic between April and June. Cities notorious for severe traffic jams such as Beijing, Harbin, and Chongqing saw drastic decreases in their congestion index.
Altogether15 cities saw their congestion index fall by at least eight percent with the average congestion index of the ten most congested cities dropping by 4.9 percent.
The newspaper attributes the reduction in traffic to new regulations regarding online car-hailing services, the introduction of bicycle-sharing, upgraded infrastructure, as well as the use of internet powered traffic management.
It also pointed out that traffic in small cities was more concerning. Take Qingyuan City of Guangdong Province for example, its congestion index had surged by 12.9 percent.
The following is the list of the top 10 most congested cities. Changchun City of Jilin Province is the only city in the top 10 to have experienced greater congestion.