SHENZHENS URBAN MOBILITY TRANSFORMATION

Essay by Dr. Alexander Erath

As part of the background material for the 2015 Global Schindler Award, Dr.
Alexander Erath, a senior researcher on mobility and transportation at Singapores
Future Cities Lab, was invited to write an essay about Shenzhens mobility
transformation. His essay examines the transition of the citys mobility
infrastructure and modes given the economic, spatial and social context of the city.
Shifts in population and industry have affected transportation demands, and policy
changes have impacted the creation of new infrastructure and regulated aspects of
mobility. Looking forward at Shenzhens future, Erath concludes that the city must
continue to pursue sustainable forms of transit based expansions and alterations
to the existing road and rail network, to achieve a more livable city for all of
Shenzhens inhabitants.
Since the establishment as Chinas first Special Economic Zone in 1979, Shenzhen has
experienced profound changes in mobility culture. The city not only changed from being a
cluster of small fishing and agricultural villages to become a Megacity, also the prevailing
mobility culture transformed from being a Non-Motorized City to a Traffic-Saturated City.
In the early phase of development, bicycles dominated the streets of Shenzhen as
housing and workplaces were developed side by side. With free market land use and
market policies as well as more foreign investment, this development path was challenged
as employees were granted more freedom with regards to employment and place of
residence leading to more mobility demand. With the growing income also the demand of
motorized transport expanded rapidly which the cities transport policy initially embraced
by providing a road system that is designed for speed and capacity. However, as it soon
became clear that it would not be possible for Shenzhen to build its way out of congestion,
the city has developed a vision to become a Transit City which manifests in the rapid
development and expansion of the MRT system.

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As the government of Shenzhen aims for it to become a world-class city, qualitative

aspects of mobility culture become more relevant and planning for environments that
invite walking and cycling have been recently introduced to the policy agenda. The
previously followed development path, however, poses various challenges for retrofitting
the existing urban landscape, which calls for innovative solutions that work at the interface
of urban design and mobility planning.
Paths of growth

Figure 1 Comic strip from Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China (Delisle 2006)

The city of Shenzhen, situated just north of Hong Kong in Guangdong Province in south
China, has experienced tremendous growth both in terms of economy and population
over the past 35 years. The metamorphosis from a cluster of agricultural villages to a
global city and economic powerhouse started with the designation of Shenzhen as one of
Chinas first Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in 1980.
The Open Door Policy introduced a market economy in an environment that used to be
governed as a planned economy. During a first phase of the development between 1980
and 1985, Shenzhen attracted primarily domestic investors, including ministry-led or
provincial enterprise (Ng2003). The closeness to Hong Kong, cheap labor and tax
incentives corporate tax in Shenzhen SEZ was only 15% compared to 55% elsewhere
in China appealed to export oriented, low-value added labor intensive industries such as
export processing, assembling and manufacturing which relied on imported materials and
designs. Over five years, the new jobs attracted around 400,000 new migrant workers to
the city. Since this number was twice as much as expected, substantial investment was
necessary for infrastructure as well as social, educational and other urban services.
Despite the boom, it also became apparent that inadequate physical and legal
infrastructure deterred many potential international investors and only three of the 10
planned industrial districts were completed (Wong1985). A series of administrative and
socioeconomic reforms were implemented to restructure the bureaucracy led economy in
the following years (NgandTang2004). Economic entities had to dissolve their linkages
with the government, and land reform in 1987 allowed the transfer of land use rights.
Those reforms led to an economic restructuring of the Shenzhen SEZ. As the land prices
rose, high-tech industries began to gain prominence and foreign investment increased.
This accelerated economic boom lead to continuous population growth. In the period from
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1990 to 2000 the city absorbed almost five million additional migrant workers while also
the resident population expanded by half a million residents. This massive growth also
exerted pressure on the urban infrastructure. In particular the road network was not
designed to cope with the substantial mobility demand and also freshwater shortages and
environmental problems occurred. To address those issues and to fight the depressed
market caused by the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the Shenzhen Municipal Government
set out to enact substantial infrastructure investments. Since then, Shenzhen has
diversified its economy further with a growing tertiary sector. Fueled by the steadily
growing disposable incomes of workers in the Pearl River, Shenzhen developed to
become a regional retail center. This development was further supported as Hong Kong
residents were attracted by lower prices as customers for personal services and
consumer durables.
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Figure 2 GDP Development in Shenzhen for different sectors

Spatial and Urban development

Despite having boomed under market economy conditions, Shenzhens urban design and
urban form is still heavily influenced by socialist ideology as state-owned enterprises
controlled the initial stage of development. During the 1980s, the state-owned enterprises
developed residential housing and basic services for all employees of a work unit
(danwei) within proximity of the production estate. Those mono-functional estates were
usually developed as closed-yard-style units (dayuan), with dead end access roads to
reduce through-traffic or even surrounded by walls to enable effective control of the
neighborhood.

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Figure 3: Comic strip from Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China (Delisle 2006)

During the first phase of development, travel demand in Shenzhen was low and trips were
primarily made by non-motorized modes, i.e. on foot or by bicycle. The prevailing social
and economic structure supported those forms of transport. As state-owned enterprises
developed Dayuan style residential areas in vicinity of the production facilities, the
resulting transport demand patterns supported non-motorized travel modes. However,
given the size of a typical Dayuan the resulting street network features long, straight and
wide boulevards. Since it was expected that the social life would primarily evolve within
the Dayuan, and cars were very rare, the barrier effects that such a road network pattern
imposes were apparently considered as negligible.
In terms of spatial development, the most important reform was the introduction of a land
market and the transfer of land user rights in 1987. Through this reform, land has become
a sought-after production factor. This led to a boom in real estate development, from
which the government derived tax income to improve infrastructure and implement
development plans. While the land market reform can be seen as a catalyst of the
following economic restructuring, it weakened the tradition of government- or factoryprovided accommodation. People started to work in the private sector, which provided
better pay, and foreign companies began to set up new enterprises in Shenzhen. As such,
the reform untied housing from peoples workplaces and hence broke the link between
home and work locations, fueling travel demand.

Figure 4: Comic strip from Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China (Delisle 2006)

With a the booming economy that was greatly exceeding the projections by the central
government, as early as 1987 temporary residents outnumbered permanent residents for
the first time. As employers did not feel responsible anymore to provide housing,
Shenzhen ran into severe housing shortages, which the government addressed with the
Housing System Reform announced in 1988. But as public housing was mainly
constructed for employees of state-owned businesses and civil servants, the employees
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of the expanding private sector were excluded. The increasing housing demand was
initially met by the illegal development of the urban villages on land owned by ex-farmers,
and later by private sector housing development. To ease the pressure of a continuously
growing population between 1990 and 2000 Shenzhen accommodated almost half a
million new residents per year. New residential projects were first realized in Futian
District, (which later was to become Shenzhens second CBD) and subsequently at an
even larger scale at the fringes of the city. This applied in particular to governmentsubsidized housing due to the cheaper land prices in those areas. At the same time, the
municipal government of Shenzhen followed a polycentric urban development plan. With
the development of the industrial estates in the western parts of the SEZ and the
development of the districts of Longang in the east and Boaan in the west in 1994,
Shenzhen was gradually formed into a linear city.
Transforming Mobility Culture
The spatial structure of the newly developed land was characterized by rather large plots
of mono-functional usage. And as residential developments were constructed at the urban
fringe, the spatial expansion of the city led to a substantial increase in transport demand.
As in other Chinese cities, the state-owned public transport services were not ready to
handle the increase in demand. As a result informal forms of transportation met this
demand, such as minibuses and motorcycles. Both modes were later banned because of
poor safety records and the overloading of vehicles. In regard to motorcycles, the
municipal government claimed environmental concerns and the usage of motorcycles for
criminal activities such as handbag theft as reasons for the ban. Unofficial sources such
as blogs and international observers would also highlight that motorcycles did not fit the
image of modernity in which Chinese leaders would like to see their cities presented.
Electric bicycles were soon identified as a legal alternative to the outlawed motorcycles,
especially as many Chinese e-bike models work without pedaling. However, primarily
because of road safety concerns electric bicycles have been reported to cause many
traffic accidents the government of Shenzhen banned the use of electric bicycles in
downtown areas in 2011.

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220
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Figure 5: Comparison of GDP per capita and motorcycles/cars per thousand inhabitants of Shenzhen

Starting in the late 1990s Shenzhen entered a process of rapid motorization. Since 1998,
the number of cars in Shenzhen grew in average by 18% annually, almost at the same
pace as the increase in GDP per capita. Over the course of 15 years, the fleet size
expanded twelve times and considerably outpaced the rate of population growth.
Whereas in 1998 the car ownership rate was 32 cars per 1000 persons, in 2012 this figure
was twelve times higher, i.e. 210 cars per 1000 persons. However, it would be rather
simplistic to explain this development only as a function of increasing incomes, especially
as car ownership was actively supported by the prevailing transport policies.
The central government designated the car industry as a pillar in Chinas industrial and
economic development in its 9th Five-Year Plan. In the following Five-Year-Plan,
published in 2001, the government was encouraging families to own their own car and put
forward a set of automobile consumption policies (Song2013). During this time, the urban
road network has not only been substantially expanded, but also was designed primarily
with cars in mind. The spatially very extensive, grade-separated interchanges at the very
core of the city, for example along Shennan Road and Binhe Road, are literally concrete
testimonies of this planning policy. Those artefacts cause not only significant barrier
effects, but considering todays land value in this area of the city; they might also have
been better constructed as tunnels.

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Figure 6: Comic strip from Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China (Delisle 2006) and photograph
from Futurama

However, the manifestation of the vision that a modern city features big highways is
obviously not only found in Shenzhen, but can also has characterized the mobility culture
in places such as Dubai and Los Angeles. It actually dates back to Futurama, an exhibit at
the 1939 New York Worlds Fair designed by Norman Bel Geddes, which was sponsored
by General Motors, and presented as a possible model of the world 20 years into the
future. More subtle adaptions of the transport infrastructure, that clearly prioritize cars
over other modes of transport, can be found for example in the ubiquitous installation of
overhead bridges for pedestrians and long signal cycle times, which both optimize car
throughput, at the cost of comfort and waiting time of pedestrians.
Last but not least, the hierarchical road network with rather long grid distances of 500
meters a legacy of Dayuan-style urban development limits connectivity which is crucial
for the viability of other modes of transport. Topologically it actually resembles road
networks as found in American suburbs, although in Shenzhen the residential units
extend not only in the horizontal but also vertical direction. Such an urban environment
makes driving a car not only by far the most convenient mode of transport; it is usually
also much quicker than public transport. Even more, the car-oriented urban and street
design at the expense of walking and cycling infrastructure directly lowers the viability of
those modes. As any public transport trip starts and ends with a walking leg, it is only
natural that owning a car is considered very desirable in an environment that is shaped by
pedestrian overpasses and multilane roads crisscrossing the whole city. Those cars are
also regularly seen as a status symbol seems then very logical and therefore should
potentially not be claimed as an excuse but be seen as an endogenous factor of transport
policies that favor the car.
Towards a More Sustainable Future
Despite the adaptation of the road network towards the requirements of cars, the everincreasing car demand soon outstripped its capacity. Severe congestion, noise and air
pollution gradually built up and continue to deteriorate the quality of life in Shenzhen. As
decision makers realized that it is impractical for Shenzhen to build its way out of road
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congestion, they started to seek more sustainable solutions. Shenzhen identified the rapid
expansion and improvement of the public transport system as the primary answer to
address the problem. While the planning for a metro system began as early as 1998, the
first two lines only opened in 2004, initially only at a frequency of 15 minutes.
Subsequently, the network underwent rapid expansion as three additional lines were
added in June 2011, just before the Shenzhen Universiade Games. While three more
lines are currently under construction, to be opened in 2016, the extension of existing
lines and addition of at least three more lines are already approved. In parallel, the bus
network was also expanded and the overall service quality of the public transport was
improved. Learning from the experiences in other cities such as Singapore, Beijing,
London and Shanghai, the government of Shenzhen has also identified and announced
that in addition to this expansion of public transport, the introduction of active travel
demand management such as congestion pricing, parking management and curbing car
ownership as strategies to effectively tackle traffic problems. Furthermore, it is reasonable
to also expect that more innovative mobility solutions such as shared car systems, electric
mobility and self-driving vehicles will contribute to addressing the congestion problem.
However, one indispensable dimension towards a more sustainable transport system
remained largely unaddressed so far: design.
Over the years, as urban design in Shenzhen first followed a Soviet-inspired idea of
modernism and streets were later adapted to serve the needs of motorists, the urban
fabric developed more and more to become a hostile environment for walking and cycling,
by far the two most sustainable transport modes. Researchers such as Jan Gehl (Gehl
1987), William Whyte (Whyte 1980), and Allan Jacobs (Jacobs 1985) realized and
described in their pioneering work the profound relationships between the physical design
and peoples behavior in urban contexts. Drawing from this work, we know today that
amenities not only need to be within reasonable distance for walking and cycling, but that
the urban fabric also must make sure that those modes of transport are considered to be
safe and comfortable and make traveling on foot or by bike an interesting and pleasant
experience. Unfortunately, planning for such outcomes, requires approaches that are
exactly the opposite of the paradigms that shaped todays urban design of Shenzhen.
Cities such as Copenhagen, Amsterdam or Zurich, and also urban quarters such as the
French Concession in Shanghai, that support sustainable modes of transport, have
usually not been planned on the big drawing board to look impressive from a birds eye
view but instead emerged gradually and have been further developed at a human scale.
They also do not feature ever repeating building patters, but offer a high diversity in
building functions and types. They are not built around a tightly hierarchical street
network, but provide a highly connected street network that suits all modes of transport
well, according to their individual strengths.
It is clear that Shenzhen has developed under quite different circumstances than the
mentioned examples, which are considered to be very livable cities or urban quarters. And
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as Shenzhen aims to become one of the most livable cities in the world itself, to call for a
tabula rasa blank-slate approach would neither be a very sensible nor feasible solution.
The planning challenge lies rather in carefully reshaping and renewing the existing urban
fabric through means of innovative design that is inspired by a fundamental understanding
of the human desires and comprehensive mobility needs of a growing urban population.
References
Delisle,Guy(2006).Shenzhen:ATraveloguefromChina.RandomHouse.
Gehl,Jan(1987).LifeBetweenBuildings.NewYork:VanNostrandReinhold.
Jacobs,AllanB(1985).LookingatCities.Cambridge,Mass.:HarvardUniversityPress.
Lin,QunandJiahuaSong(2011).ShenzhenTransportDevelopmentStrategyintheNewEra,City
PlanningReview35(1):8893.
Ng,MeeKam(2003).Shenzhen,Cities,PartSpecialIssue:CitiesofSpain20(6):429441.
Ng,MeeKamandWingShingTang(2004).TheRoleofPlanningintheDevelopmentof
Shenzhen,China:RhetoricandRealities,EurasianGeographyandEconomics45(3):190211.
Song,Ziqi(2013).Beijing:TransitiontoaTransitCity,inMegacityMobilityCulture,LectureNotes
inMobility,89106.SpringerBerlinHeidelberg.
Whyte,WilliamHollingsworth(1980).TheSocialLifeofSmallUrbanSpaces.NewYork:The
ConservationFoundation.
Wong,KwanYiu(1985).TheEconomicPotentialofShenzhen:Industry,TourismandAgriculture,
inModernizationinChina:TheCaseoftheShenzhenSpecialEconomicZone,DavidK.Y.Chuand
KwanYiuWong,5778.OxfordUniversityPress.
Biography: Dr. Alexander Erath is currently a senior researcher at the Future Cities
Laboratory in Singapore. As research module coordinator (Deputy PI), he manages the
research module on Mobility and Transportation Planning and lead in this role the
implementation and further development of the large-scale, agent-based transport
demand model MATSim Singapore. He obtained his PhD in 2011 from ETH Zrich (Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology) where he studied the vulnerability of transport
infrastructure. His main research interests are multi-agent, activity-based transport
demand modelling, the interaction between transport infrastructure and the built
environment as well as travel behaviour modelling. In this domain, he was involved in
various studies with a focus on stated preference surveys and led a project on long term
fuel price elasticity that featured stated adaptation face-to-face interviews.

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