Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2184638/heres-way-out-hong-kong-traffic-jams-get-public-officials-out-their
Comment/ Letters

Here’s a way out of Hong Kong traffic jams: get public officials out of their cars

  • The reluctance to limit the number of cars on Hong Kong roads could be traced to the fact that policymakers don’t tend to use public transport
Traffic crawls on Gloucester Road in Wan Chai on January 11. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

I agree with the crux of your editorial, “Period of reflection may help Lam rise to the challenge ahead” (January 31), but members of the Executive Council, the Bureau secretaries and department heads could do more to support our chief executive. One gets the impression that Mrs Lam is the only official willing to take initiative and responsibility. I agree with letter writer Peter den Hartog that our government system has become dysfunctional.

For instance, the Secretary for Transport and Housing and the Commissioner for Transport have procrastinated for so many years on road congestion and tunnel toll adjustments, hiding behind private consultants’ reports and awaiting the completion of major infrastructure. At the Legislative Council, officials still seem woefully unprepared and act like rabbits caught in headlights. The growth in the number of cars in Hong Kong is clearly unsustainable and there is no scope for, or sense in, building more roads. Our promised “world-class” Central and Wan Chai reclamation is already covered by roads and the resultant pollution.

The best transport solutions are normally arrived at by trial and error, and these don’t have to cost billions of dollars in infrastructure. Over 90 per cent of people commute by public transport, so there is a need to remove the blockage caused by the current predilection for private cars.

Cars parked illegally on Wan Chai Road in 2016. Photo: Sam Tsang
Cars parked illegally on Wan Chai Road in 2016. Photo: Sam Tsang

All three cross-harbour tunnels could have one lane where private cars are prohibited, but which are open to all other vehicle classes – buses, taxis, minibuses, goods vehicles.

Of course, the major impediment to getting any action on private cars is that the people that make the decisions in this city travel by private car. Apparently, they do not care if buses do not move.

Frank Lee, Wan Chai