I refer to the recent Hong Kong police crackdown on illegal parking and recent letters in the Post on this subject (“ Hong Kong’s illegal parking crackdown all about one rule for them ”, November 4; and “ Hong Kong’s selfish drivers must wake up and stop breaking the law ”, November 16), both of which focus on the lack of enforcement of parking laws where more expensive or chauffeur-driven cars are concerned. The problem identified on Ice House Street is relatively recent. Far more long-standing – more than 25 years, to my knowledge – is the one along the whole length of Chater Road, especially outside the Prince’s Building (now rebranded as Landmark Prince’s). Here, cars are illegally parked – as well as double-parked to boot – right up to the traffic lights. I believe that is illegal in itself, whether they are double-parked or not. Chater Road is often reduced to a single lane of traffic, and this in the very centre of a major city. If ticketing chauffeur-driven cars is too sensitive a problem for traffic wardens or the police, here is a simple, cheap and permanent solution: install lane-dividing poles on Chater road, such as the red ones already used to prevent illegal right turns or stop vehicles crossing into an opposing lane, as at the top of Garden Road/Cotton Tree Drive or the elevated section of Robinson Road. This will create a funnel such that a car entering that lane will be blocked until any vehicle already in the lane has exited it. To put it another way, it will create peer pressure between the illegal parkers to clear the problem themselves. John Barclay, Mid-Levels
