THE NEXT TIME you're stuck in a traffic jam in Central - or held up at one of Hong Kong's innumerable roadworks - it may be worth having a wry laugh over the blinkered vision of the Government's transport bureaucrats. From the comfort of their chauffeur-driven cars, they somehow seem to have come to the remarkable conclusion that traffic jams are not really much of a problem at present.
A government study has reportedly concluded that traffic still manages to average 18 kilometres per hour - even during rush hours. And Secretary for Transport Nicholas Ng Wing-fui publicly labelled local traffic conditions as 'good' in a recent interview.
He also added there was no urgency about moving towards electronic road pricing - despite Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's suggestion in last October's Policy Address that it was time to revisit this controversial issue. That explains the bureaucrats head-in-the-sand approach. Electronic road pricing - under which drivers are charged according to their road use - is a huge political hot potato.
In the past, it even managed to derail the career of one of Mr Ng's predecessors. And although it falls within his remit, the ultra-cautious Mr Ng clearly wants to distance himself from such a politically unpopular task.
In private, he reportedly made this explicit. Officials say that in internal government meetings, Mr Ng has cited the 18 km/h figure as justification for arguing there is no transportation-related need for such a scheme.
He is said to have added it would be different if Secretary for Environment and Food Lily Yam Kwan Pui-ying wanted it introduced for environmental reasons, such as for combatting air pollution, or Secretary for Treasury Denise Yue Chung-yee needed such a scheme for the revenue it would generate. In other words - the idea is fine, as long as someone other than Mr Ng is responsible for it.
