MR CHAN KIN-POR (in Cantonese): Deputy President, I am very glad that today the Legislative Council can debate on the traffic problems in Hong Kong. In the past year or two, it seemed that there were no other problems in society apart from political issues. In fact, our society faces many livelihood problems that need to be solved. For example, the problem of traffic congestion we are debating here today has long been troubling society for a very long time. The Council should waste no more time and should get back on track so as to solve various livelihood problems for the people.
Traffic congestion has been plaguing Hong Kong for years. Despite the Government’s continuous efforts to construct railways and build new roads, the problem of congestion remains to be solved. During rush hours when students and workers are going to or returning from school or work, congestion on major trunk roads is a common occurrence. Honourable colleagues have made quite many insightful comments today, and I do not want to repeat here. I just want to focus my discussion on the problem with private cars.
At present, there are approximately 800 000 licensed vehicles in Hong Kong, among which 570 000 are private cars. It means that 70% of all vehicles are private cars, representing a very high percentage. Though not every owner of private cars drives every day, given the large number of private cars, there will be severe traffic congestion as along as some drivers drive every day. Therefore, to reduce the number of private cars running on roads, many countries have come up with many different methods, including odd-even licence plate restriction and ride-sharing. I believe, as Hong Kong is to develop itself into a smart city, it should conduct studies on such newly emerged methods.
I believe it is not feasible to implement odd-even licence plate restriction in Hong Kong, but ride-sharing is worth studying. The concept of ride-sharing has long existed in foreign countries and has gradually gained popularity on the Mainland. The concept is simple. Assuming three car owners each drive their cars to work every day, if the Government provides some incentives to encourage these three car owners to ride together in the same car to work, there will be one car on the road instead of three, thereby reducing the chance of congestion. I find it worthwhile to study this method. We often see many private cars on the road, but most of them only carry one or two passengers. If ride-sharing can be promoted in Hong Kong, the problem of congestion can possibly be solved.
In fact, the results of a study indicated that large-scale ride-sharing can effectively reduce idle seats in private cars and facilitate the effective use of resources, thus reducing the need for vehicle purchases, while suppressing the growth of road vehicles and promote energy conservation and emission reduction in terms of transport. If ride-sharing becomes the mainstream mode of private transport, the number of private cars on the road will possibly be reduced by more than 40% and the problem of traffic congestion in Hong Kong is then expected to be reduced by 90%. Of course, these are all predictions. Whether ride-sharing is suitable for Hong Kong still needs to be studied in detail. However, it is certain that various places in the world have lots of experience of encouraging people to share rides, from which Honourable colleagues can draw reference.
Many cities in the Mainland and the United States (“US”) have implemented ride-sharing, and their experience is worthy of our reference. Designated lanes for ride-sharing have been introduced since 2014 in Wuxi, Jiangsu of the Mainland, followed by Jinan, Shenzhen and Chengdu. The designated lanes are for the use of public buses, private cars or lorries carrying two or more passengers. They resemble the bus lanes in Hong Kong. To avoid abuse, the Mainland cities have adopted advanced surveillance technologies, such as infrared thermography for detection of the number of passengers and licence plate recognition technology.
The State of Washington, US has established high-occupancy vehicle lanes (“HOV”) connecting major residential areas and employment areas for the use of ride-sharing vehicles carrying two or more passengers. Studies have indicated that HOV lanes can indeed encourage ride-sharing among commuters. Seattle has even introduced roadside parking spaces designated for ride-sharing vehicles for the use of office workers in the vicinity at affordable rates, with priority given to vehicles carrying more passengers.
To sum up, cities promoting ride-sharing will usually provide designated lanes and some even set up designated parking spaces so as to encourage people to share rides. Of course, the governments concerned also need to make strong promotion and publicity efforts. These cities have all achieved good result. I consider that, to address traffic congestion and air pollution, Hong Kong should conduct an in-depth study on this approach. I have made this proposal today purely for the sake of arousing more views and discussions. I hope Honourable colleagues can give this new approach some thought and solve the problems by thinking out of the box.
Thank you, Deputy President.