Watch: How ‘reversible lanes’ help relieve traffic jams in China

Image credit: SpokespersonCHN/Twitter

What is something that almost everyone, in every major city across the world, will agree on? That rush-hour traffic is a pain. Traffic is a necessary evil that comes with living in urban areas, and perhaps that’s why innovations that help the problem are much-admired. One such innovation currently going viral on Twitter shows adjustable road dividers that authorities in China reportedly use to change the “direction of traffic.”

The video in question was shared on Twitter by Chinese official and former diplomat Hua Chunying. Filmed it Beijing, it shows the working of reversible lanes that help improve traffic flow.

“How does Beijing relieve traffic jams? By changing the direction of traffic,” Chunying wrote while sharing the clip. “Here's how they do it. The traffic authority selects a lane to go one direction in the morning and the opposite direction in the evening to release peak pressure.”

#ChinaInfrastructure: How does Beijing relieve traffic jams? By changing the direction of traffic. Here's how they do it. The traffic authority selects a lane to go one direction in the morning and the opposite direction in the evening to release peak pressure. pic.twitter.com/OaaxycwDJQ

— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) August 31, 2022

Exists in Mexico for decades

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— Emme (@Emmecrypto) August 31, 2022

In Taipei it's literally just "okay, during time X this lane goes the other way", no need to do that street barrier re-aligning shit.

— Chris Chiu #StandWithUkraine (@christoph_chiu) August 31, 2022

The first reversible lanes in world was on the Golden Gate Bridge, 1962. Just for reference.

— PTSD (@AngZhou1981) August 31, 2022

Reversible traffic lanes come in handy when one lane gets more congested than the other on two-way roads – something that often happens during peak rush hours. New innovations have made it possible to install movable road dividers that allow authorities to borrow road space from one lane to decongest the other.

According to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute: “Reversible traffic lanes add peak-direction capacity to a two-way road and decrease congestion by borrowing available lane capacity from the other direction.”