China Daily reported that Beijing will spend 240 billion yuan (US$34 billion) by 2012 to upgrade its traffic infrastructure. In the five years before the Olympics, the city spent 170 billion yuan.

“We will make sure our investment on transport infrastructure is no less than 5 percent of our GDP in the coming few years,” [Liu Xiaoming, director of the Beijing municipal committee of communications] said. The money will mainly be spent on extending the city’s subway lines, which currently total 110 km, he said.

By 2012, the city is expected to have 420 km of subway lines in operation, Liu said…Ou Guoli, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, said it was necessary to develop subways in Beijing as it was one of the best ways to ease traffic congestion.

Beijing currently has 3.4 million cars on the road. Without restrictions, the number is projected to exceed 4 million in three years. It took Tokyo, Japan 10 years for the number of cars to increase from 2 million to 3 million.