Transit Jam weekly newsletter #2
Lion Rock Greenway, electric shoes and Junius out(shoe)shining himself
Welcome to the Transit Jam weekly newsletter, all the good stuff which didn’t fit on the website plus scroll down for the headlines, road safety stats and Dashcam of the Week!
Lion Rock Greenway to go ahead
Good news! Highways Department will ask designers to include a cycle path under Lion Rock as part of the tunnel upgrade plans!
Officials had previously stomped on the idea like firemen putting out a hill fire – but some persistence from a group of us including Hong Kong Cycling Alliance, Street Reset and Kowloon Greenway (the latter two relatively new orgs and ones to watch) saw public, press and even lawmaker support. Thanks Tony Tse in particular for being a heavyweight name behind this.
In the end the government realised not only was it a great idea but also that its reasons for rejecting the plan were weak ("we need the spare tunnel in case there's an accident in the main tunnel" and "it's too steep for bikes to approach").
It's now time to see Transport Department's reaction. If they try their usual "cycling is not recommended in Kowloon" then this project will end up as a leisure path with a car park and no bicycle access at the Kowloon end.
Some in this active transport community think it's better to bank the project than rock the boat with TD. In the spirit of being a team player I am not camped outside TD HQ right now with a megaphone and a list of demands. That may come later... the main point of this tunnel HAS to be a cycle connection from Kowloon to Sha Tin. The reckless abandonment of active transport in urban areas for the last 20 years has led to a disgusting proliferation of private cars maiming, polluting and congesting and creating an environment increasingly difficult for bicycles and people. And the "bubble" district aspect of Hong Kong – poor active transport connections between districts – is one reason cycling is not taking off in urban areas. If you couldn't physically cycle from, say, Tottenham to Covent Garden, cycling in London would probably still be in the dark ages too. A lot of people live in NT and work/school in Kowloon: letting them commute by bike would be an amazing vision for clean HK transport.
Battery-powered roller skates will be classed as “motor vehicles”
Transport Department is determined to suck the fun out of EVERYTHING, even these very cool battery-powered shoes, which help you walk 2.5 times faster and are available for pre-order (for absurdly huge sums) on Kickstarter right now. I asked TD if they would be legal in Hong Kong – the response was, these skates would likely be classed as motor vehicles and, hence, require a licence (which the government would never grant), a driver's licence for that class of vehicle (which the government would never grant), third party insurance (good luck with that) and an approved helmet (good luck finding one approved by the government for a device it deems illegal).
Brunneis nasum ad nasueum: de-westernising our park names
Lawmaker Junius Ho has suggested renaming parks and sitting out areas after famous Chinese characters instead of the current western names.
He has been richly rewarded for his efforts with some helpful suggestions over on Twitter. Please feel free to join in! You could also email the Subcommittee with any suggestions, they will become part of the LegCo record: sc_subleg@legco.gov.hk
Transit Jam headlines
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EXCLUSIVE: HONG KONG TO LEGALISE E-SCOOTERS IN 2023
TAXI DRIVER ARRESTED FOR DANGEROUS DRIVING AFTER CYCLIST KILLED IN YUEN LONG
COPS DOGGEDLY HUNTING E-BIKES IN LAST MONTHS BEFORE LEGALISATION
HONG KONG WORKER DEATH RATE IS DOUBLE QATAR’S
Hong Kong road safety
Weekly crash stats: Monday 31 Oct to Sunday 6 Nov, 2022
Traffic crashes: 664
Traffic crashes with injury: 158
Weekly average crashes with injury: 274 (2022 to end Sep)
Dashcam of the Week
I interviewed Donald Shoup a year or so ago, his solution for Hong Kong’s illegal parking problem was… the Denver Boot (wheelclamps to non-Americans). The pain of being clamped, the inconvenience…. it’s a real deterrent1: my wife’s cousin STILL talks about the time she was clamped at CityOne in 2012.
Anyway, even though they’re quite rare in Hong Kong, this gentleman was having none of it. I’m curious about the legality of sawing one off – is it criminal damage? Did he even succeed?
eg, also causing outrage over on Twitter this week was the $320 (US$40) parking fine for a $5 million Lamborghini (licence plate S1N) parked in a bus stop. Hong Kong’s parking fines are still in Colonial times, not raised since 1994. Given the low chances of getting caught, taking a few $320 tickets a month is much cheaper than parking legally and paying the fine is super easy through govt apps.