Decentralise Hong Kong’s business districts to ease traffic congestion
Ken Chu says focusing efforts on curbing private car numbers may not be effective. A better solution is to set up more urban core areas, such as by building the East Lantau Metropolis
Privately owned vehicles are often blamed for chronic traffic congestion, especially in the prime business and retail centres. To curb the growth of private car numbers, some people have called for the introduction of electronic road pricing in Hong Kong’s busiest areas, but opponents argue that it would unfairly penalise the poor while favouring the affluent.
Electronic road pricing plan for Hong Kong’s Central district slammed by local councillors
While it is thought that better and more convenient public transport services should encourage people to ditch their cars for the train, bus or taxi, we should acknowledge that each public transport mode has its own limitations. For example, we cannot expect our MTR system to extend to every corner of the city.
Also, there is always a risk that better road-based public transport services may encourage more people to use them and, as a result, will lead to more traffic, contributing to congestion.
Moreover, there will always be people who choose to drive their own vehicles for reasons such as lifestyle preference or a negative perception of the public system, even though they know the roads are constantly gridlocked and that it is faster and more convenient to ride the MTR.
Private car users also say it is unfair to single them out for blame for the congested roads because there are other types of vehicles sharing the road.
In fact, some people argue that commercial goods vans loading and unloading goods, daytime roadworks, illegally parked vehicles and so forth are the real culprits for the jams in Hong Kong’s urban areas.
Hong Kong must target private cars to stop the city grinding to a halt
