Electronic road pricing plan for Hong Kong’s Central district slammed by local councillors
Government should instead target rampant illegal parking in business district as way to ease congestion, they say
Central district councillors on Thursday united in bashing the government’s plan to introduce electronic road pricing in the neighbourhood, saying the policy by itself could not ease chronic road congestion and pollution in Hong Kong’s core business district.
They argued the government should instead prioritise confronting problems such as rampant illegal parking and the lack of parking spaces.
Liberal Party councillor Joseph Chan Ho-lim, representing the Peak constituency, said the root cause of traffic jams in Central was widespread double-parking in key arteries such as Queen’s Road Central and Chater Road.
“Right now, the problem of severe congestion in Central is not about more cars or fewer cars coming to Central. The problem is the cars in Central don’t move at all,” said Chan. “Why the cars don’t move? It’s because of illegal parking ... parts of the roads are always blocked.
“What angers me the most is when the police and traffic officers see illegal parking, they don’t issue a ticket and just ask them to leave.”
Council vice-chairman Chan Hok-fung questioned why a road tax was needed at all.
“It’s illegal parking. We said this 90,000 times in district council ... but nothing was done to alleviate [it],” said Chan of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong . “We are going to have the Central-Wan Chai Bypass. Is there a need to do electronic road pricing? Why can’t we wait until the bypass is opened?”