Q Do you think the Central-Wan Chai bypass should go ahead?
I was very much amused by the comments of Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen Ming-yeung concerning the need for a bypass and citing traffic congestion as a reason for the reclamation and the reason why the public must decide to 'reclaim or suffer traffic jams'.
The public is powerless in this matter. Road traffic policy is in the hands of the government and the relevant departments. Both have continued to turn a deaf ear to a wide range of creative suggestions from those who travel in the area on how to alleviate the congestion.
Congestion from Central to Wan Chai arises not from public desire, but from the government's lack of imagination and inability to think out of the box (or out of the bypass) when developing alternative road-traffic strategies.
Severe congestion along Hardcourt Road, Gloucester Road, Harbour Road, Convention Avenue and Hung Hing Road naturally occurs during morning and evening rush hours. At any other time, these roads appear to be relatively congestion-free.
When driving along these roads to and from work, my impression is that it is the convoys of buses, when they change from one lane to another or suddenly stop, that cause the congestion - and, in some cases, accidents.
This is compounded in the evenings just before the start or end of an exhibition at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai, when at rush hour, delivery trucks cause absolute chaos by queueing along the roads around the centre.