Asia apos;s Traffic Roars Back As Lockdowns End

Commuters make their way along a busy street in Karachi in Pakistan after the government eased a nationwide lockdown

The mopeds are back in Hanoi, cars once more clog Karachi's streets and gridlock has returned to Beijing's ring roads -- as lockdowns caused by the coronavirus ease, the temporary respite from traffic has also been broken.
For a while the entrance to Yangon's golden Sule pagoda emerged from behind the swirl of buses and banged-up cars

Asia's megacities are notoriously traffic-choked, inflicting dizzying pollution and enervating daily delays on their residents.
Bangkok's air quality momentarily turned 'clean' as the vehicles squeezing along its main thoroughfares vanished

Yet for a few weeks pedestrians ruled the roads as lockdowns, curfews and self-isolation prodded by fears over the Covid-19 pandemic did the once unthinkable and kept hundreds of millions of people indoors.

For a while, the entrance to Yangon's golden Sule pagoda emerged from behind the swirl of buses and banged-up cars.
Mopeds once again fill every available space between the cars on Hanoi's streets

Bangkok's air quality momentarily turned "clean" as the vehicles squeezing along its main thoroughfares vanished, while in Beijing overpasses were emptied after China banned movement as it grappled with the spread of the virus.
In Hong Kong, revellers are slowly returning to the streets of Lan Kwai Fong, a popular drinking area in the central business district

But restrictions have eased in most of Asia's seething cities as nations tamp down the first wave of the virus and economies heavily reliant on the movement of people -- and famed for a vibrant street life -- grind back into gear.
Gridlock has returned to Beijing's ring roads

Mopeds again fill every available space between the cars around Hanoi's Hoan Kiem lake, a buzzing menace to people trying to cross the road.

In Hong Kong, revellers are slowly returning to the streets of Lan Kwai Fong, a popular drinking area in the central business district that went quiet during a temporary ban on the sale of alcohol in bars and tour chùa hương 1 ngày restaurants.
Normal business has resumed at the cross-harbour bridge in Sydney

Karachi once more teems with rickshaws and buses while normal business has resumed at the cross-harbour bridge in Sydney.
Traffic congestion is back in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province, where the pandemic emerged last year

And in Wuhan in China's Hubei province, where the virus emerged last year, Tour Chùa Hương vehicles once again clog the city's highways and roads as life returns to normal.

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