A drone captures jaw-dropping traffic jam at the expressway toll stations in Beijing and Hebei. (Photo : YouTube)
If you thought your post-holiday commute to work was bad, then you haven’t seen anything yet. A drone captured the 40-lane wide "Carmageddon" as Beijing residents were coming home from the New Year’s break.
The drone footage which was captured by the People's Daily shows thousands of cars stuck in the mega-sized traffic jam as families traveled back to Beijing after the holiday break.
The jam started at the motorway toll station on the Beijing/Hong Kong/Macau expressway, also known as the G4. At around 4 in the afternoon, the horrendous traffic was thought to stretch back to about 1 kilometer.
Aside from the jampack of cars, what made it worse was the closing of several sections of the road due to heavy smog which caused low visibility.
Drivers who were interviewed by the local media compared their experience of having been in a car park instead of a road. They were only able to reach their homes by night time, after queuing at the motorway in the afternoon.
The footage of the Carmageddon sparked a heated online discussion from Beijing residents as they anticipate heavier smog in the coming days. The comments on the video ranged from poking fun at the traffic congestion to criticisms against the lack of action from the government.
One user said that the counter-urbanization phenomenon could be accelerated because of the problems facing megacities including traffic jams and smog.
Meanwhile, another user said that the problem is so serious, but the government did not even apologize.
Other users were just glad that they just stayed home for the holidays and were able to avoid the mega-traffic.
If you think that this was the worst traffic jam in history, it is estimated that things will get even worse on Chinese New Year on Jan. 28.
Unless the government addresses the problem of public transportation and lessening the air pollution, this Carmageddon is bound to be repeated in the future.
