Bridge spells trouble for Hong Kong
港珠澳橋的影響
The new bridge to Macao and Zhuhai is almost ready. Together with the new crossing at Liantang-Heung Yuen Wai and improvements along the Western Corridor across Shenzhen Bay these new road links will dramatically increase the number of vehicles which can cross the boundary of Hong Kong.
Collated data from the Transport Department statistics and various papers
And that spells trouble for Hong Kong. A lot of trouble. Where will all that traffic go?
For the last two decades around 40,000 vehicles crossed our boundary every day. Over time the mix of vehicles changed with fewer trucks and now more private vehicles and coaches. But overall, the total crossings remained stable.
That is till now. The new road links we are building will increase border crossings to over 220,000 vehicles a day. Once opened the political pressure will be enormous to make sure these roads are used. There will be a strong push for Hong Kong to issue more permits for mainland vehicles to drive here. And similarly, the Mainland will allow more Hong Kong cars to enter. In turn, more Hongkongers will consider owning cars as they can use them to drive to destinations throughout Guangdong.
To understand how significant these numbers are, our existing local car fleet is only 820,000 vehicles. And our short road network is already so congested that the journey speeds of less than 10km/h are becoming a regular occurrence along major urban roads.
Hong Kong was designed as a closed city, and opening the boundary for more vehicles is a major change. I have looked for plans to see how government intends to cope. I can’t find any.
Despite our warning in 2012 of the risk of overloading Hong Kong’s road network (see https://goo.gl/wrVxhE ), there are no convenient park’n ride facilities at the boundary. And there are no park’n walk plans for urban districts .
All I can find are old plans for electronic road pricing for a small area on Hong Kong Island. With nowhere to go, it looks like we will all be paying the price for this new traffic.
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Paul Zimmerman
Southern District Councillor for Pokfulam
CEO, Designing Hong Kong
A shorter version was published in AM730
https://www.am730.com.hk/column/%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E/bridge-spells-trouble-for-hong-kong-%E6%B8%AF%E7%8F%A0%E6%BE%B3%E6%A9%8B%E7%9A%84%E5%BD%B1%E9%9F%BF-81510
港珠澳大橋快將要落成了，加上位於蓮塘和香園圍的新口岸以及在深港西部通道上的改善工程，這些新的道路網絡將會急劇增加了跨港邊境的車輛數目。
這將會為香港帶來很多的問題。這些新增的車輛將會駛進那裡？
現時每日已經有40,000輛汽車在跨港道路上行駛。隨著時間的變遷，道路上的汽車種類亦漸漸開始改變。道路上的貨車逐漸減少，取而代之的是更多的私家車和長途公共汽車在道路上行駛。但整體上，汽車的交通流量依然維持穩定。
基於新建設的跨境道路與現有的交通運輸網絡連接起來，將來的交通流量將高達220,000架次。當道路開通後，為了確保新建設道路將得到使用和不同的政治考量，香港必定增加對中國內地駕駛者發放駕駛許可證的數目，讓更多的內地車輛在香港區域行駛。同樣地，中國內地的政府也准許更多香港的車輛駛往內地。最後只會造成更多的香港市民考慮購入和使用私家車，方便他們在香港與廣東地區進行跨地域的駕駛。
相比起本地總車輛登記數目820,000輛，跨港邊境的車輛數目實在非常龐大。現在香港市區內短程交通已經非常擠塞，車輛在市區道路行駛時速甚至比一小時十公里還慢。
開放邊境地方讓車輛駛入將為香港的交通情況會帶來重大改變。我嘗試尋找政府有何計劃應付車輛數目的急劇增加，但事實上還沒有計劃。
雖然我們已在2012年警告香港道路網路負荷過重的問題 (詳見 https://goo.gl/wrVxhE )， 可惜直到現在市區仍缺乏停泊車輛的設施，迫使不少車輛停泊在狹窄的道路上。
現時舊有計劃只有在香港島的小範圍地區有電子道路收費，在沒有辦法的情況下，似乎我們都需要為新的交通設施付費。
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司馬文
南區薄扶林區區議員
創建香港行政總裁
撮要版本刊登於AM730
https://www.am730.com.hk/column/%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E/bridge-spells-trouble-for-hong-kong-%E6%B8%AF%E7%8F%A0%E6%BE%B3%E6%A9%8B%E7%9A%84%E5%BD%B1%E9%9F%BF-81510
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