HONG KONG, 14 May 2019 — Continuous growth of traffic in a city with finite road space is doomed to fail. It can either fail when the situation gets so bad that citizens’ patience runs out, or fades away as a bad memory through smart and proactive transportation policy.

A Long Time Coming

Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) has been up for discussion in Hong Kong since the 1980s. Hong Kong was very prescient and forward thinking back then when it was among the first in the world to see the potential in Electronic Road Pricing to keep people and goods flowing in urban environments. After more than 30 years, while ERP has failed to get implemented in Hong Kong, many major cities – equals to Hong Kong in influence and affluence – have gone ahead with ERP as a means to improve their citizens’ quality of life through improved mobility. Here in Hong Kong, the traffic situation has, instead, worsened, and the need for active traffic management is now more urgent than ever before.

Because of this, Civic Exchange strongly supports the Government in its ambition to implement the Electronic Road Pricing Pilot Scheme in Central.