Epic traffic jam in China?

Can a monster traffic jam spanning dozens of miles and leaving drivers stuck for days really disappear overnight?

For days, Chinese and foreign media have issued reports explaining how thousands of vehicles were trapped in an epic traffic jam stretching for more than 100 kilometres on a highway leading to China’s capital Beijing.

The stretch of highway has become increasingly prone to massive tailbacks as the capital of more than 20 million people sucks in huge shipments of goods.

Traffic slowed to a snail’s pace in June and July for nearly a month, according to earlier press reports.

China has embarked in recent years on a huge expansion of its national road system but traffic periodically overwhelms the grid.

According to government data, Beijing is on track to have five million cars on its roads by year’s end. The four million mark was passed in December.

The head of the Beijing Transportation Research Centre, Guo Jifu, warned that traffic in the capital could slow to under 15 kilometres an hour on average if further measures were not taken to limit the number of cars.

Meanwhile a “super bus” is due to be tested in the coming months in the western part of Beijing, travelling on rails and straddling two lanes of traffic. This allows cars to drive under its passenger compartment, which holds up to 1,400 people.