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SCMP Reporter

HONG KONG drivers face crowded and lawless roads when they cross the border into Shenzhen, an official mainland newspaper said yesterday.

     The Shenzhen Legal Paper said the city's roads carried more traffic than they were built for, while the road network was so starved of funds that two-thirds of the most important road junctions did not have traffic lights.

  Shenzhen's traffic police were severely understaffed, and the roads where they were supposed to direct traffic often had no one in control.

  The news comes just two days after three Hong Kong container truck drivers were beaten up by People's Liberation Army soldiers following traffic disputes.

  According to the newspaper report, strong economic growth had set off a boom in vehicle ownership.

  The number of motor vehicles on the roads was increasing 20 to 25 per cent every year, enough for the total to double within three years.

   At the end of last year there were 180,819 vehicles in the Special Economic Zone, the paper said, and 116,477 drivers. This was a 51-fold increase on the 1979 figure, when there were just 3,563 vehicles.

  But Shenzhen's road capacity had failed to keep pace, the paper said, and was now ''seriously deficient''. In 1979, Shenzhen had 106.9 kilometres of roads, compared with the current 344.5 km, a threefold rise.

  The city's highways budget was seriously deficient, the paper said. There was not enough money to maintain, let alone improve, existing road signs and signals. Meanwhile, 256 out of 382 major road junctions did not have any traffic lights.

    Another serious deficiency was in the traffic police, who were 295 officers short of the number required, leaving the traffic to find its own way through hundreds of crossroads.

  The problems were magnified by faults in the existing network, ''discordant traffic flow'' and constant roadwork.

  However, Hong Kong container lorry drivers queuing at the Man Kam To border crossing in Shenzhen were not put out when told the news.

  ''Actually, Shenzhen is not too bad,'' said 49-year-old Liu Chi-kin from Western.

  ''It is when you get outside into Guangdong that the troubles start.

  ''The roads are really bad, and it can be difficult for a long vehicle like this to get through,'' Mr Liu said.

  ''The traffic is appalling, and the worst are the tractors. They go very slow, and it is very difficult to get past them.''   He said things might improve when Hopewell boss Gordon Wu's Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Zhuhai Superhighway opened.



Traffic jams Shenzhen roads