With rising populations come rising living standards and one too many cars. The traffic in Shenyang can be burdensome, especially during rush hours. Also, a lot of people are moving further and further outside of the downtown area because of the rise in housing. These pressures are tough on young people who are just building their careers in Shenyang. With high housing rates and thick traffic, their commutes have only worsened in recent years.
The subway system has helped with a lot of traffic issues for people, but there’s still a lot of the city that the metro doesn’t reach. In addition to the three lines coming at the end of the year, there are two more lines to come by 2020. Hopefully, this will cause more people to commute via metro than by car on the over-populated roads. Sometimes people feel the need to move to a smaller city in order to deal with the high cost of living. Unfortunately, this isn’t a good solution for Shenyang because the city loses economic potential and popularity that way. However, I think Shenyang is doing a good job at rebuilding its image as a citizen-friendly city with rich history, green space and a state-of-the-art metro system.
