Photo from thecityfix.com

The Global Times reports that commuting times for Beijingers averaged 43.6 minutes from 2005-2010 – 5.6 minutes more than the average time clocked back in 2005.

The statistics were based on a survey of 6,000 Beijing residents and revealed, among other things, that “women take a little longer than men” and people in their 40s spend the most time on the road.

The article also quoted the Beijing Union University professor in charge of the study, Meng Bin, as saying “There’s rarely a commute time of more than 40 minutes in large Western cities where there are a lot more vehicles … in Japan, commute times actually have been reduced by 15 minutes compared to a decade ago.”

Considering the world average is 40 minutes, Beijing is certainly well below par  – and this doesn’t even taking into account that for many residents, the average 43.6 minutes reported is far below their actual commute times.

According to this infographic (produced in 2005) China has (had?) the fifth worst commuting times in the world, ranking only behind places like the Central African Republic, Algeria, Kenya and Thailand,  where the average working stiff in Bangkok took two hours to get to and from work each day at the time this data was gathered.

China has certainly moved up to the top of the list in the seven years since: Last year IBM released  its ‘Commuter Pain Study in which Beijing had the dubious distinction of having “the world’s most painful commute.” Meanwhile Stockholm came out as having the world’s best commutes of any major city, with Melbourne, Houston, and New York City also reporting “fairly painless commutes.”

It’s high time to bring back those bike lanes.