Objections from critics and academics continue to mount after a proposal to scrap tram services in Central emerged recently. Experts have concluded that the increasing number of cars – not trams, as the proposal suggested – may be the main cause behind for traffic congestion. Thank goodness we have experts to tell us things like that!
Last month Intellect Consultancy, a management consulting firm, proposed that the Town Planning Board remove tram services in Central in order to “solve traffic congestion” and increase the road’s efficiency. Trams would cease to operate from Des Voeux Road Central to Queensway if the plan are approved.
A representative for Hong Kong Tramways, determined to keep existing, blamed the increase in the number of cars and illegal parking cases as the main factor driving congestion during an interview with Apple Daily.
The company maintains that trams are the most environmentally friendly means of transportation (that doesn’t involve exercise), and that they use road space the most efficiently. Taking up the space occupied by a single vehicle, a tram can carry up to 90 passengers, the rep added.
Hung Wing-tat, from PolyU’s Department of Civil and Environment Engineering, however, told RTHK that drivers would welcome tram-free roads. Taxi and lorry drivers think trams “slow them down”, he said.
Hung also challenged the proposal’s thoroughness as he explained that the congestion in Central begins on Gloucester Road in Wan Chai. He added that the trams are part of the city’s “century-old heritage” and a unique Hong Kong icon, according to Mingpao.
A report from local NGO Friends of the Earth said that it’s actually because there is not enough public transport that there is so much traffic congestion in busy Central.
The NGO found that there is an excessive number of private vehicles occupying the tram tracks during peak hours, easily taking up to 44 percent of the roads. Buses and trams, that are designed to reduce traffic congestion and effectively use the road space, experience a decrease in speed and timeliness as a result. It concluded by recommending decicated bus and tram lanes similar to those in other major cities.
The director of Intellect Consultancy, Sit Kwok-keung, defended his proposal in a radio programme on RTHK. He argued that tram stations are “right in the way of everything”.
“What is the good of keeping trams besides nostalgia?” he asked, in typical Hong Kong fashion.
If it’s not increasing efficiency or profit margins, what value can something possibly have, after all?
“Evaluating efficiency is important… you can’t be living in the past”, he added.
When asked about whether the trams represented Hong Kong’s cultural heritage, he responded, “If you want nostalgia, I think a tram museum would be a good idea, like you can have a few trams in a merry-go-round in Shau Kei Wan!
This guy’s a genius! Sit Kwok-heung for chief executive!
Photo: mk2010 via Wikimedia Commons
