Don't let road congestion choke Hong Kong's development

The quality and efficiency of Hong Kong's MTR receive rave reviews from residents and visitors alike. It's a world-class system for Asia's "world city". Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the city's road transport.

Hong Kong's "above-ground" transport is running into major challenges. The key issues are: increasing traffic congestion, decreasing convenience, and worsening roadside air pollution. Each of these issues must be resolved for Hong Kong to maintain its competitiveness.

Traffic conditions on major roads are noticeably worsening. According to government data, average vehicle speed on Lung Cheung Road (an expressway) has declined by 40 per cent from 2005 to 2010, and on Waterloo Road (a commuter artery) by 22 per cent.

Bus journey times have increased; data from KMB shows 99 per cent of its routes experiencing increased journey times, with the rise an average of 16 per cent. Worsening congestion means more delays for commuters and a higher toll on the environment.

The delays and variability of road transport naturally push commuters to use the subways, which is environmentally friendly. But railway crowding and the rising wealth of the middle class are pushing people back to road transport - this time in the form of private cars.

Indeed, over the past five years, 97 per cent of the growth in passenger vehicles has come from private cars. To meet the public's increasing point-to-point transport needs, Hong Kong needs a faster and more efficient bus system to complement the railways.

But within today's bus network, there are many routes that have become redundant, slow and circuitous. Worse yet, numerous routes with empty buses are not permitted to be efficiently restructured. This has to change.