Beijing owed the smooth traffic during the China- Africa summit to successful cooperation between the local authorities and citizens.

At a press conference on Monday, deputy chief of the Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission Liu Xiaoming said the impressive traffic conditions were due to high attention that the government had paid to the transportation management.

Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission Liu Xiaoming said the impressive traffic conditions during China-Africa Summit were due to high attention that the government had paid to the transportation management and a successful cooperation between the local authorities and citizens. [BOCOG]

The municipal government issued a letter to the citizens to use more public buses instead of private vehicles during the summit from November 1-5. It asked the various departments to control their own auto traffic volume, and rearrange office hours to help decrease urban traffic flow.

At the same time transportation service companies deployed more buses, shortened working intervals and extended operational hours.

Over 662,000 bus units (operational times) were put in use during the summit, a 10 percent rise on the ordinary volume. The number of bus riders amounted to 53.35 million, a 6.7 percent increase. In the area of subway traffic, the number of riders rose 15.9 percent to 10.84 million. This was a result of a surge of 20 percent to 8145 subway trains in use.

According to Beijing Transportation Management Bureau, the initiative of private car owners to drive less or stop driving during the summit time contributed significantly to the traffic improvement. The pause of some 400,000 private cars and an equal number of government-owned vehicles largely lessened the traffic pressure facing Beijing which owns a total of 2.82 million motor vehicles, including 2 million private ones, statistics show.

The summit was attended by 41 heads of state or government and senior officials from all the 48 African countries that have diplomatic ties with China, as well as representatives from regional and international organizations. They lived in over 20 hotels, and their traffic involved a length of 1785 kilometers in 120 routes to the Great Hall of the People, where the form took place. The authorities called the event the largest meeting of heads of state in Beijing since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Officials of the Beijing municipality as well the organizers of the 29th Olympiad said the traffic management in the case offered good experience for the 2008 Olympic Games.