After a stop-start history, Hong Kong is restarting a road-pricing plan for traffic-clogged Central
- Proposals for electronic road pricing have been made since the 1980s
- Government must win over public after decades of disappointment
Ringo Lee Yiu-pui, president of the Hong Kong Automobile Association, believes the time has come for people to pay to drive on the congested streets of the city’s central business district.
He noticed that during peak hours pedestrians could almost walk as fast as the cars crawling along bumper-to-bumper.
“Traffic speeds [on roads] such as Queen’s Road Central can be below 5 or 6km/h,” said Lee, who drives into Central once a week for meetings and ends up being delayed by up to 15 minutes by rush-hour traffic.
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.
