The government has proposed electronic pricing to reduce traffic and smog, but still demands Central-Wan Chai bypass
Mention transport in Hong Kong and thoughts often turn to impeccably clean trains that run on time, buses and minibuses available to every conceivable destination and a giant fleet of taxis mercifully powered by Toyota's liquified petroleum gas engines.
Yet much to the chagrin of residents, visitors and - presumably - the Hong Kong tourist board, an equally valid image of travel in the territory is one of traffic jams and the lung-filling roadside pollution that inevitably accompanies them.
Last week, the government proposed via its council on sustainable development a bundle of measures to tackle the territory's worsening air pollution problem, including one technology discussed and tested ad nauseum for more than two decades, but yet to be deployed beyond tunnels in the territory - electronic road pricing.
Specifically, the council suggested using electronic road pricing to cut traffic volume during peak times, banning private vehicles from congested areas at certain times and levelling out cross-harbour tunnel charges.
'Hong Kong was for a long time well ahead of the game in developing this technology,' said Andy Green, chief technical officer at Hong Kong-based transportation technology experts KG Intelligent Systems (KGIS). 'Now other cities - most notably London - have deployed electronic road-pricing systems and are already reaping the benefits in the form of reduced congestion and pollution.'
