Ethical Perspectives Study On Road Traffic Dilemma And Its Governance In China Automobile Society

When China is walking into the automobile society, the road traffic have shown so manyproblems, which include traffic conflicts, serious traffic congestion, uneven development andthe tense relations among the natural environment, the energy and the traffic, etc. The puretraditional technical and institutional governance made Chinese automobile society grow wellfor a short period of time, but it cannot ensure a sustained, long-term healthy operation forChina because it lacked to reflect the thoughts of the whole society.From the view of subject, this research can reveal relationships about social and traffic,environment and traffic as well as the occasion of the ethical in transport activities deeply,which is sure to enrich the subject content of transportation planning, management andapplied ethics. From the view of social applications, this study can help to improve rationalability of transport development in Chinese automobile social processes, to increase theharmonious relationship between transport and the environment, to digest transportationinterpersonal conflict and to promote system of traffic effectively changed.The research methods in this thesis include investigating personal experiences and thegeneral public interviews, combining with the general guidelines and specific transport issues,systems studies, cross-comparison study and literature research. This paper formed thefollowing research results through a comprehensive study of ethical issues in trafficgovernance.Ⅰ. This paper summarized the developing regularity of the traffic culture aboutautomobile society. Over viewing of the course of automobile society, the traffic culture wasgradually developed into a state of rational pursuit from the state of individual free in theearly time, and it will pursuit the whole free in the future.Ⅱ. This paper analyzed the basic relationships of the road traffic in automobile society,which include the relationship of traffic community, the relationship between individual rightsand institutional arrangements, and the relationship between traffic and the environment.Ⅲ. This paper analyzed the traffic delimma in Chinese automobile society from ethicswhich were derived from four factors:1) The state of traditional culture being broken away;2)Developing concept of anthropocentrism;3)Self-centered behavior style;4)Efficiency-centeredpolicyⅣ. This paper analyzed the evolution of the traffic governance system about developedcountries and regions in the automobile society，in which they concern personal safety andhealth, sustainability, traffic rights protecting and multi-traffic developing. Furthermore, continental Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and other developedcountries have their own characteristics in traffic governance, but they all once fell into thecar-centered error in early automobile society.Ⅴ. This paper constructed ethical system of traffic governance in Chinese automobilesociety. First of all, the ethical core of the traffic governance is to protect the rights, includingthe rights of traffic individual life and health, equality for the individual traffic, and expandingto open right of way. Secondly, it should nurture the culture of the community of traffic andbuild the cultural system of the community of Chinese characteristics transport, which canprompt the individual-centered approach to the overall interests in the traffic. It shouldintegrate a wide range to force the role of the government, the public, civil societyorganizations and form a pattern of pluralistic governance through integrating automotivesocial characteristics and exploring the advantages of traditional Chinese culture. Thirdly, itmust reconstruct the inter-subjectivity of all traffic participants in modern traffic system inorder to defuse increasingly severe traffic interpersonal conflict.Ⅵ.The mechanisms of dialogue and negotiations should be introduced to trafficgovernance to promote ethical consensus. We should merge culture between Chinese andwestern traffic to overcome technical dissimilation. We should introduce the ethicalevaluation into the course of transportation policy formulation to made it be more reasonableand easier to accept.