Shanghai roads are getting crowded again
Busy traffic near Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall
Traffic flows at Shanghai's major downtown roads have almost recovered to their normal levels before the March COVID-19 resurgence, the city's transport management center said on Saturday.
A total of 1.9 million vehicles were on local main roads in August, a 7.2 percent increase on July, said the center under the Shanghai Transport Commission.
That is 94.5 percent of late February, before the recent COVID-19 resurgence in the city.
The traffic flow on local highways has been fully restored to the pre-resurgence level with about 1.3 million cars, a 10.8 percent increase month on month.
The Fuxing Road and Dapu Road tunnels running under the Huangpu River have seen the biggest surge during rush hours.
The number of cross-provincial vehicles on local national and provincial expressways is also increasing rapidly, especially cargo trucks to or from mainly neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
However, amid the restored flow, the number of traffic accidents is also rising. More than 2,300 accidents occurred on local main roads, highways and bridges.
Vehicle flow bounced back quickly after the passing of typhoon Hinnamnor and the opening of new semesters at local schools from September.
The number of vehicles during morning rush hours rose by 17 percent on September 5 compared with September 1. Congestion occurred most frequently on the busy South-North Elevated Road with an average congestion time of about 2.5 hours during the morning rush, as well as part of the Inner Ring Road between Gonghexin Road and Yan'an Road W.
The Xujiahui commercial hub had the most congested ground roads during rush hours in early September, followed by the Gonghexincun Community area in Jing'an District.
