Bus operator calls for priority lanes as 'private cars are clogging up the roads'

The largest franchised bus operator is calling for new road rules to give its vehicles priority, saying excessive private car growth is causing congestion that has increased its journey times by up to 30 per cent.

Kowloon Motor Bus says traffic jams, aggravated by big construction projects, are occurring across the city and affecting almost all of its routes.

"It is now everywhere … not just the busy urban corridors, but even far away like Yuen Long, where congestion is a daily norm," KMB corporate affairs director Vivian Chan Pik-kwan said.

Changes sought by the company, which now runs 3,800 buses, include more bus lanes and rules that require private vehicles to give way at bus stops.

Chan said the number of licensed private cars had risen from 370,000 to more than 470,000 in the past five years, while the number of KMB buses had dropped from more than 4,000.

In the same period, journey times on 99 per cent of its routes had increased by an average of 17 per cent. The biggest increase was 30 per cent, but Chan did not name the route.