Pilot traffic scheme on the right track
- Despite being the first city to study road pricing 30 years ago Hong Kong is yet to agree on such a move, but a proposed trial has raised hopes on the congested streets
The Central-Wan Chai Bypass project provided an excuse for years for officials to put off serious discussion of electronic road pricing to ease congestion in the heart of the city. They said it could not be introduced until the bypass provided an alternative. It opened in February, and a government paper submitted to Central and Western District Council last week outlined details of a pilot road-pricing scheme. But officials withdrew it at the last minute. A government source said some councillors preferred to discuss the proposal in May during a full council meeting, when it was likely to be retabled.
That is in keeping with the history of the proposal. As the then undersecretary for the environment, Christine Loh Kung-wai, told an air quality conference years ago, Hong Kong was the first city in the world to study electronic road pricing, during the 1980s, but 30 years later had still not reached consensus on an idea since adopted successfully elsewhere, such as Singapore and London, and now being introduced in the busiest areas of New York City.
Consensus may still be elusive, going by the government’s shelving of a plan to adjust tolls at the three cross-harbour tunnels to ease congestion, after it met broad political opposition. But proposals to ease congestion and speed up traffic in Central, in a paper from the Transport and Housing Bureau, deserve serious discussion and trial.
The pilot scheme will cover 14 streets from the waterfront to Hollywood Road in Sheung Wan, in an attempt to reduce traffic volume by 15 per cent. Motorists will have to pay to enter the area, which includes Queen’s Road Central, Des Voeux Road Central and Connaught Road Central. The paper did not say when the scheme would begin, how long it would last or how much motorists would pay. They would be charged using radio-frequency identification technology and the money would be funnelled back into developing public transport. Should the scheme prove effective, the document said, the average speed of vehicles in the zone during peak hours may rise from 3km/h to 5km/h and waiting times at junctions would be cut. To provide an incentive to leave cars at home, the provision of short-run public transport alternatives within the zone should be considered as part of the trial.