Cheung Chi-fai – SCMP If you are looking for the place in Hong Kong where you can breathe most easily, Tai Po has the cleanest air – on the face of it. It had the fewest hours of unhealthy air in the first half of the year – 1,188 hours, equivalent to 50 days. But [...]
Posts under ‘Road Pricing’
Pollution Study Points To Dangers Of ‘Canyon Effect’
Cheung Chi-fai, SCMP – Updated on Feb 02, 2009 The “canyon effect” is to blame for the much higher level of ultrafine air pollutants at bus stops on “walled streets” in Central compared with those in more ventilated areas, a study has shown. In one comparison, the number of pollutants nearly doubled. The canyon effect [...]
Well Positioned To Help Fuel Future Growth
Thomas Tang – SCMP | Updated on Nov 05, 2008 The financial crisis has focused the minds of everyone on the economy. Cuts in interest rates to maintain liquidity are the measures currently being discussed in macroeconomic circles. However, despite the ominous likelihood of a recession, does this mean that Hong Kong will just seize [...]
Axe Bypass, Says Ex-London Mayor: ‘However Many Roads You build – They Will Fill Up, Usually Within 18 Months’
Albert Wong – SCMP | Updated on Nov 04, 2008 Construction of the Central-Wan Chai bypass would be a “complete waste of time” and only serve to increase the number of drivers in the area, according to the former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. “Literally, it will fill up in two years; it might fill [...]
Time Running Out For Smog Review
Time running out for smog review Government fails to make progress in its examination of air pollution standards Cheung Chi-fai – SCMP – Updated on Oct 08, 2008 A year after the government began reviewing Hong Kong’s outdated air-pollution standards, officials have made no firm commitments to new air-quality objectives – and the exercise is [...]
Street Fighting
HK MAGAZINE – October 3rd, 2008 From pollution to urban renewal and quality of life, a lot of Hong Kong’s problems can be traced back to unnecessary road construction, writes John Robertson. Which is more important in Hong Kong—cars or you? If you read the pedestrian chapter of the Transport Department’s official “Road User’s Code,” [...]
In A Muddle Over Policy
Updated on Apr 14, 2008 – SCMP There are times when I feel that the government is not being clear-headed about some of its policies. That the topic of road pricing has been under discussion since 1980 reflects sluggishness on the part of officials, and an inability and sluggishness in solving this problem – and [...]
Pricey ERP Is Best Choice
Updated on Apr 08, 2008 – SCMP We have to strongly reconsider the government’s view on air pollution. Whereas the Wan Chai to Central Bypass seeks to facilitate the current traffic flow through the centre of our city or may even allow the flow to increase, the purpose of electronic road pricing is to reduce [...]
Other World Cities Have Proved That Road Pricing Works
SCMP – Updated on Apr 06, 2008 Your editorial (“High levy a poor excuse for delaying electronic toll”, March 30) is spot on. Hong Kong was one of the first cities to consider such a charge, yet despite decades of studies that have indicated positive benefits for electronic road pricing (ERP), a baffling bureaucratic inertia [...]
Congestion Charge In Hong Kong
SCMP I am confused by Annelise Connell’s presumptionsand arguments, in her call for a congestion charge in Hong Kong (“Congestion charge plea”, March 25). First, she said: “Our government knows that congestion charging will solve the existing traffic problems from Central to Causeway Bay.” I cannot recall seeing such an affirmative statement from the government. [...]