But a transport expert says officials need to consider 'more creative policies'
In eight years, a drive from Kennedy Town to Central could take 20 minutes if reclamation work for the planned Central-Wan Chai bypass is stopped, a government study says.
The High Court today will hear an application from the Society for the Protection of the Harbour seeking to stop the controversial Central reclamation project. A Housing, Planning and Lands Bureau spokesman said that according to its traffic studies, a drive from Kennedy Town to Central would increase from three minutes to 20 minutes if the bypass cannot be completed in 2011.
The Environment, Transport and Works Bureau also said the traffic jams between Gloucester Road and Connaught Road in Central would be serious by 2016 if the bypass was not built.
It said the government's traffic jam index - which is used as a measure of vehicle congestion - for Gloucester Road would jump from 1 at present to 1.2 in 2011 and 1.3 in 2016 if the bypass did not exist. However, the index would just be 0.9 by 2011 if the highway was built.
But transport expert Hung Wing-tat, of the Polytechnic University, said Hong Kong should not use a demand-driven approach on transport planning.
He said the government 'should have more creative policies on managing traffic'.