Lee has come to the view driving in the central business district is a privilege and those who wish to do so should be prepared to pay.

In Hong Kong, that is easier said than done. Proposals for electronic road pricing have been made several times since the 1980s, only to be shelved after furious objections from motorists, district officials and politicians.

The Hong Kong government is ready to try again. Yet another pay-to-use plan to ease traffic congestion in Central is in the works, and it is again likely to face resistance, especially with district council elections coming up in November and Legislative Council elections next year.

Whether the plan succeeds will be a test of the government’s determination and ability to mobilise support from Hongkongers who want smoother traffic and less pollution, experts said.

“It’s difficult to make drastic changes to the road network in Central to ease road congestion,” said Lee, whose association represents 17,000 motorists.

“It’s time for the government to implement a pilot scheme to test the feasibility of electronic road pricing.”

The government’s new plan is to charge motorists who enter an area of Central covering 14 streets from the waterfront to Hollywood Road, including the major arteries of Queen’s Road Central, Des Voeux Road Central and Connaught Road Central.

The proposal, which will be up for consultation from next month, is the sixth road pricing plan to be proposed since the mid-1980s.

The traffic management tool is meant to influence motorists’ behaviour, usually with different prices charged for peak and off-peak periods. Motorists must decide whether to pay more to enter the designated zone during rush hour, pay less by postponing their trips to an off-peak period, choose alternative routes to avoid paying or switch to public transport.

The average number of vehicles going through the central business district has risen from 463,300 a day in 2003 to 503,400 in 2017, an increase of more than 10 per cent. Average vehicle speed during peak hours has also slowed down.

The Transport and Housing Bureau paper on the electronic road pricing pilot scheme was made public on March 26. It did not say when it would begin or give details about charges, aside from mentioning that fees would vary at different times of day.

The proposal was scheduled for discussed at the March 28 meeting of the Central and Western District Council’s Traffic and Transport Committee, but was dropped from the agenda at the last minute. The plan is now expected to be debated in May. The Post understands a detailed proposal will go before the Legislative Council’s transport panel this year.

Several district councillors who were briefed about the scheme last month said motorists were likely to be charged between 8am and 8pm. Buses, private school buses, and school and residents’ coaches would be exempt.

A source familiar with the government’s position said taxis, which account for about 30 per cent of the vehicles entering the central business district, might be charged a lower rate than private cars.

The source said cargo vehicles would have to pay during peak hours.

“We hope drivers of freight vehicles can switch to entering the zone during non-peak hours,” the source said.

Chan Hok-fung, vice-chairman of the Central and Western District Council and a member of the pro-government Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), is already against the plan.

“The government should step up efforts to clamp down on illegal parking and vehicles waiting on the roadside in busy streets in Central, rather than levying charges on cars,” he said.

The government has been encouraging people to travel to Central by public transport instead of driving. But Chan said the public transport network, including the MTR, was “already saturated”.

Hong Kong first raised electronic road pricing in 1983, when then secretary for transport Alan Scott announced a HK$35 million pilot scheme for Central and said the project would the first of its kind in the world.

The plan included charging the city’s 230,000 private car owners about HK$200 a month each to use the roads in Central.

The idea was rejected by motorists and members of the district boards, the forerunners of today’s district councils, who criticised it as a ploy to raise revenue from motorists and an intrusion on the privacy of individuals by monitoring their movements.

The Executive Council decided in December 1985 to put the plan on hold.

Since then, road pricing has been introduced in several countries, including Singapore, Britain, Sweden and Italy.

Singapore’s plan, introduced in 1998, is considered the world’s first. It now covers the city state’s central business district and congested motorways, with different charges at different times of the day. Payment is deducted automatically from cash cards installed in all vehicles, as motorists drive through electronic gantries.

Hong Kong tried to revive the electronic road pricing idea several times since the mid-1990s, but it never took off. Meanwhile, traffic congestion in the city has become worse.

In Central, traffic speeds along sections of some roads can fall below 10km/h during weekday morning peak hours. According to the Transport Department, the average evening peak-hour speed along Queen’s Road Central slowed from 11.2km/h in 2010 to 7.7km/h last year. The average morning peak-hour traffic speed along Cleverly Street went from 9.5km/h to 4.1km/h .

The number of private cars rose from 524,300 in 2003 to 787,000 in January this year. The city’s road network grew by 0.4 per cent each year since 2014, whereas the number of vehicles has gone up by an average of 3 per cent per year.

Researcher Henry Ho, who lives in North Point and drives to Central two or three times a week for meetings, is familiar with crawling in traffic along Queen’s Road Central and Pedder Street during peak hours.

Although he does not think congestion is as bad as in some mainland Chinese cities, he is prepared to pay to use some roads if it will mean smoother driving.

“I find being charged up to HK$20 per trip acceptable,” he said. “If the fee is too high, it will be difficult to win support from Legco.”

If the views of the DAB’s Chan and other district councillors are any indication, transport officials have a lot of persuading to do.

Cheng Lai-king, a member of Central and Western District Council, is worried about what will happen when motorists choose alternative routes to avoid paying the road fees.

For example, she said, motorists heading from Wan Chai to Western District might go through the Mid-Levels to avoid the pay-to-use zone in Central.

“The Mid-Levels would then suffer from traffic congestion,” said Cheng, a Democratic Party member. “I’ll oppose the scheme if the government fails to address such concerns.”

Chan Choi-hi, chairman of the Central and Western District Council’s traffic and transport committee, said supports a pilot scheme, but thinks the proposed coverage area is too wide.

“Areas south of Queen’s Road Central, such as Wellington Street and Stanley Street, should be taken out,” he said. He said he also hoped the government would provide some concessions to people living in the designated zone.

Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, a former transport secretary who spearheaded the public consultation for the 2015 proposal, expects opposition again. Even so, he said he hoped the government would press ahead for the good of the city.

Cheung recalled meeting a visiting Stockholm municipal government delegation in 2015, and discussing how the Swedish capital introduced road pricing in 2007.

“They told me opinion polls conducted before a pilot scheme of electronic road pricing introduced in 2006 found that 80 per cent of residents opposed or had reservations about the scheme,” he said. “But in another survey carried out after the scheme was implemented, 70 per cent opposed scrapping the scheme because they recognised the benefits in easing traffic along heavily congested roads.”

Stockholm succeeded in reducing traffic volumes on congested roads by 20 per cent and reducing travel delays.

“The lesson I learned was that we must insist on kicking off a pilot scheme and more members of the public will buy in once they see the benefits,” Cheung said.

City officials hoped that improvements to the road network might help this year’s road pricing proposal take off.

The newly opened Central-Wan Chai Bypass provides an alternative free-of-charge route for motorists to avoid the proposed pay-to-use zone in Central.

Hung Wing-tat, a fellow at the Hong Kong Society of Transportation Studies, expected less concerns about invasion of privacy compared with the 1980s. Aside from new laws to protect personal data, he said advances in technology had also influenced the public’s attitude.

“Privacy concerns are not as big as they were three decades ago because Hongkongers have got used to smartphones and e-payment methods such as Octopus cards,” he said.

He said the fate of the latest proposal rests on the government’s ability to mobilise support from those who will benefit from the easing of traffic congestion.

“Officials should send out the message loud and clear that revenue collected from the scheme would be funnelled into reducing fares of public transport commuters entering or leaving the designated area,” he said. “Part of the money should be used to buy electric buses to improve public transport services serving the area.”

Such moves could help dispel misconceptions the government was using the scheme just to raise revenue, said Hung, who has been studying the city’s transport policies for three decades.

This time around, it appears the government will have one less major opponent to the road-pricing plan.

The Automobile Association, which strongly opposed the scheme in 1983, now seems convinced of its benefits.

Lee, the association president, said: “The government should show political determination to press ahead with the scheme to ease traffic congestion in the city.”

He suggested kicking off the pilot programme along major traffic arteries such as Queen’s Road Central and Des Voeux Road Central to minimise opposition.

“The government should also provide necessary support facilities, such as enough parking spaces, on the periphery of the payment zone,” he said.