The traffic congestion problem in Hong Kong has continued to worsen in recent years. The DAB Legislative Council Member Chen Heng-pin put forward three suggestions to deal with the traffic problems caused by the future population growth in the New Territories Development Area.
Chen Hengpin today (22nd) proposed to strengthen parking and ride facilities, including the provision of private parking spaces in government applications that display parking spaces in real time, artificial intelligence to control traffic flow with traffic lights, etc., and to re-examine the tunnel toll model , Adjust the traffic flow through different charges at different times.
Chen Hengpin said that the original intention of the merger of the Transport and Housing Bureau in the past was to solve the obstacles encountered by insufficient transportation facilities when building houses, but the results have not been effective. In recent years, there has been a lack of transportation strategies.
He stated clearly that if he supports the "dismantling of the bureau", he hopes to help the government focus on solving the problem of backward transportation strategies.
Chen Hengpin put forward three suggestions to deal with traffic problems caused by future population growth in the New Territories Development Area, including strengthening parking and riding facilities, artificial intelligence to control traffic flow with traffic lights, and re-examining the tunnel toll model.
(Photo by Liao Yanxiong)
The population continues to move north, causing traffic overload
At the press conference, Chen Hengpin pointed out that in the planning of a new development area in the northwest of the New Territories, the population of Hong Kong has been moving northward in the past. It is expected that the future policy address will further develop the north of the New Territories.
Statistics show that the middle class has also moved northward, which has increased the rate of people owning cars. It is believed that the future transportation infrastructure will further lag behind population growth.
He pointed out that the early development of new towns in the New Territories was saturated with traffic, and the population of Hong Kong increased by 7.81% from 2009 to 2019, of which the New Territories increased by 9.47%.
In the same period, the median monthly household income of Hong Kong households increased by 64%, while the New Territories increased by 82%. It is believed that the data shows that the middle class has moved northward. It is believed that the growth of private cars in Hong Kong in the past 10 years is also related to this.
Chen Hengpin said that in the face of the obvious increase in cars, the government has done nothing. The construction of Route 11, which is used to divert traffic in the New Territories West, takes time, and the parking and transfer locations introduced by itself rely on railways and are located near railway stations. The utilization rate has been saturated, so that people in the New Territories can only drive out of the urban area, causing congestion.
The transportation hub can be used to build parking and ride facilities in one place
Chen Hengpin urges the government to reshape the park-and-ride policy and strengthen the land-based parking-and-ride system, including the construction of additional parking-and-ride facilities at the Tai Lam Tunnel, Lantau Link, Ma Liushui and Siu Lam, including near the cross-harbour tunnel .
He suggested that one site should be used for multiple purposes, and buildings should be built on multi-storey parking facilities.
Chen Hengpin’s other suggestion is that he hopes the government will strengthen the recommendations in the Smart City Blueprint 2.0. He criticizes that the current government applications only provide parking numbers for government parking lots. He hopes that the authorities will re-enact it and consider legislation to force private parking lots to provide real-time parking numbers and display them together.
He mentioned that there are already artificial intelligence traffic light management, Internet of Things, etc. in the Mainland; on the contrary, Hong Kong was the first place in Southeast Asia to launch a computerized regional traffic control system in 1970, but it was underdeveloped in the following decades. It is recommended to refer to artificial intelligence for dispatching vehicles. The system of roads and traffic lights refers to the fact that Hangzhou, in the Mainland, uses artificial intelligence system management, which has greatly improved traffic congestion.
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Diversion of the three tunnels has not been supported due to the uniform toll
As for tunnel tolls, Chen Heng-pin suggested that the authorities redefine the tolls as the use of traffic regulation. He said that the main reason for the lack of support for the government’s introduction of the three-tunnel diversion in 2019 is the intention to standardize the tolls: "For example, when a car from Hung Hom went to the Western Harbour Crossing, only Everyone will be stuffed together."
Chen suggested that when the West Crossing Tunnel and Tai Lam Tunnel are owned by the government in the future, with the application of the automatic non-stop toll collection system, a time-based toll collection system can be established to attract drivers to avoid vehicles during peak hours with cheaper tolls. Dragon.
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