Along with thousands of other frustrated motorists on Monday night, I was caught in the huge tailback on the outbound Route 3 caused by the closure of the top deck of Tsing Ma bridge.
This is not the first time that the top deck has been closed, although it is a first for me, so why should there be such chaos and lack of direction? Motorists are instructed to keep the car radio on in these conditions, and I desperately waited for information on the cause of the hold-up. In the two hours it took me to travel from Kowloon Station to Tung Chung, I heard only one announcement on Radio 3 at around 7.10pm informing me that the top deck was closed to lorries, but was open for cars. Consequently, I remained in the outside lane as usual to be in the correct lane when coming out of the tunnel.
To my amazement the right-hand lane to the bridge was coned off and so everyone who wanted to go over the bridge had to negotiate several lanes of tightly-packed cars to get to the inside lane. Why could the overhead gantries at Kwai Chung not have directed Lantau-bound traffic to the inside lane, backed up by radio broadcasts? This traffic would have then been on the correct side of the carriageway for entering the lower deck of the bridge.
Have the authorities no regard for the frustrated motorist in these poor weather conditions? It seems their attitude is to turn a blind eye and leave the traffic to sort itself out.
IAN WILSON
Discovery Bay
