On safety matters competence is an issue but if vehicles went slower then all vulnerable road users would be in a safer environment. That means pedestrians and even drivers in smaller cars.
I don’t subscribe to the view that HK is different to other places. The roads and traffic rule HK as they do in many cities. The cities are being taken over by roads and vehicles. If I was to put my aggressive cycle campaigner hat on I would ban all primary petrol guzzling vehicles from urban streets……………but compromise is required.
Why do I feel safer cycling over the border when everyone says the drivers are incompetent ? True the roads are wider and there is more tolerance of cyclists but I have found that on urban streets vehicles move more slowly.
So I would suggest substituting some of the traffic lanes with lanes dedicated to slower and lighter vehicles. Some cities are already changing their some of traffic lanes into Cycle Lanes. Perhaps here in Hong Kong we could call it Environmental Friendly Vehicles Lanes instead of Cycle Lanes because our cycling population is still comparatively low. Our air pollution is however rather severe now and we are no difference from everywhere else in world regarding the the energy crisis, so implementing this scheme to resolve these problems is pretty urgent.
In order to reduce the consumption of energy, Environmental Friendly Vehicles are usually designed to be smaller and lighter which means they are comparatively less safe when collided with other vehicles. It should be acceptable to sacrifice speed for the sake of Environmental Protection, but few except the hard core cyclists would be willing to sacrifice their own safety. It is therefore necessary as a forward thinking government's policy to place these Environmental Friendly Vehicles within their own lanes to avoid being harmed by the larger heavier and more powerful vehicles.
Substituting the ordinary lanes with these lanes is not only to encourage the use of Environmental Friendly Vehicles but is also intended to discourage the use of heavier and more powerful vehicles. Drivers who like to drive fast have to face the truth that fast and powerful cars have little practical use in an urban environment where the slower Environmental Friendly Vehicles are more than adequate.
A side effect of the promotion of the light and low power Environmental Friendly Vehicles would be improved road safety.
Our cities are being taken over by vehicles.Convenience used to be the main advantage when you could drive and park outside a shop or somebody's house.These days in Hong Kong it is unusual if you can do this.With the one way systems and car parks having a car in HK is more prestige than a necessity.
The goverment have to take the lead.Why has congestion charging not yet been introduced ?Why are there not more LPG stations ?What about diesel fuelled private cars which are cleaner or even biofuel.The govt are not yet taking these issues seriously.The same with slower speeds which they say takes too much policing to be effective.
