Can the Transport Department explain why it has installed traffic lights at the junction of Chung Hom Kok Road and Stanley Gap Road? Vehicles going up Chung Hom Kok Road used to turn left fairly smoothly. Now there is a long queue all the way past the fire station at around 8am when everyone is going into town. The green light only allows a few cars to go through each time. I saw some officials timing the traffic flow with a stopwatch. But do they not understand that traffic flow changes during the day? They were monitoring traffic flow in the late afternoon when everyone was going home. The position of these lights means that vehicles coming up from Repulse Bay suddenly find a row of stationary cars as they go round the bend opposite Headland Road. Although a 'slow' sign has been painted on the road, drivers do not anticipate they will have to stop so suddenly. I had two near-collisions. On one occasion, the van behind had to swerve across into oncoming traffic to avoid causing a 'sandwich' collision. Can the Transport Department do something before a serious accident occurs? There are always workmen with manually operated stop signs, somewhere between Repulse Bay and Stanley due to roadworks and slope repairs. The operators of these signs seem indifferent to the fact that a queue is often building up in one direction. On many occasions, these temporary stop signs are often in operation too close to each other or too near the traffic lights in Repulse Bay. There is no co-ordination and so a huge back-up of traffic is often created, simply because traffic is allowed through one lot of roadworks and stopped at the next location where repairs are under way. Traffic is then gridlocked until traffic police are summoned to resolve the problem. This often happens in the afternoon when children are leaving schools and there is a sudden increase in the number of school buses on the road. I wish officials would look at the transport problems in the south side of Hong Kong Island in a co-ordinated way. NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED
