Category: Roads
The trouble with EVA
Mui Wo’s EVA is a hot mess, but change may be coming.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not illegal to drive on the emergency vehicle access road through the Mui Wo hinterland.
The road, created decades ago by the CEDD when it built the drainage and sewerage system, has never been gazetted and remains a private road. The only roads where it is illegal to drive without a permit are short sections near the junction of Ngan Shek and Ngan Shu streets (above) in Mui Wo.
The Transport Department is reviewing the road’s legal status and whether it needs to be upgraded. The options are to retain as it is, to upgrade it and formally declare it a prohibited zone, or even to open it up as a public road. But with at least half a dozen government agencies and local rural committee involved, any change will take time.
EVA is under the purview of the District Office, a unit of the Home Affairs Department. But administration of the road also involves the Transport, Lands and Highways departments, police and fire services, and even Architectural Services and Building Services departments.
South Lantau police commander Chief Inspector David Bennett says that the push to develop Lantau South and the extra population that will bring means government agencies are required to look at whether declaring an EVA road “is a realistic prospect.”
He said that at his first meeting with Mui Wo leaders two years he asked if they could identify the EVA road – none could. Broadly speaking he says the ‘EVA road’ is the Rural Committee Rd. As a private road, it is not illegal to drive on it without a permit. Vehicles cannot be prosecuted for speeding, although police can hand out fines for reckless driving.
To reach the EVA road drivers must pass through the prohibited zones on Ngan Shu or Ngan Shek streets. It’s technically an offence to drive on those without a permit and police may be able to prosecute if they have a witness or evidence of the offence taking place.
The Mui Wo EVA is quite different from others in Hong Kong in being close to population. In Yuen Long and Shek O the EVAs have clear rules and are not in built-up areas.
Bennett says that in the short-term physical upgrades may be likely, such as installation of mirrors, warning signs, yellow lines and passing places.
In the long term, the question is “what does the District Office expect of this road in terms of meeting community expectations?”
Tai O chief calls for end to Lantau closed road
The head of the Tai O Rural Committee has called on the Transport Department to lift all vehicle restrictions for South Lantau.
In a written question ahead of next Monday’s Islands District Council meeting, Lou Cheuk-wing argues that now the government has ruled out a direct Tung Chung-Tai O link, it should open up South Lantau to all traffic.
This would allow “Lantau residents and all Hong Kong people to bring their vehicles without having to apply for a permit. Free movement between Tung Chung and southwest Lantau would bring convenience for city residents,” Lou said.
His request will almost certainly be rejected out of hand because of the limitations of the road network. Rural committee leaders have been pressing for the upgrade of South Lantau Road into a standard highway to support the unrestricted flow of vehicles onto the island. The Transport Department eased permit rules last January, allowing 25 private cars and 40 tourist coaches daily.
Last May 60 residents blocked Keung Shan Rd near Tai O to protest the danger posed by the growing traffic on the narrow, winding road.
The government rejected the Tung Chung-Tai O road, which has been under discussion on and off for 30 years, because of the cost and impact on the sensitive coastal environment.
What do Lantau rural leaders want? Roads
If there’s one thing Lantau’s rural representatives agree on it’s roads.
They are urging construction of two roads in particular: a northwest coastal road from Tung Chung to Tai O, and a north-south link from Pak Mong, just east of Tung Chung, to Mui Wo.
The coastal road was canvassed in the early LanDAC plans – as was a road from Tai O to Fan Lau – but was rejected, either for reasons for cost or conservation. The north coast, which hosts villages such as San Tau and Sha Lo Wan, includes coastal wetlands and natural streams and habitat for butterflies and diverse rare species.
Randy Yu, Islands District Council vice-chairman and newly-elected member for South Lantau, complained that “authorities have never thought about a long-term transport strategy” for Lantau. Continue reading
Prosecutions for closed road breaches up sharply
Prosecutions of drivers entering South Lantau without a permit have risen by nearly three-fifths in the last two years, according to Transport Dept figures.
Police prosecuted 1007 drivers last year, up from 823 in 2014 and 637 in 2013, the department said in answer to a question from Legco member Kwok Ka Ki.
South Lantau police chief David Bennett, a former traffic policeman who took on the post early last year, has said he would make road safety a priority.
Prosecutions soar for Lantau closed road breaches
Prosecutions of drivers entering South Lantau without a permit have risen by nearly three-fifths in the last two years, according to Transport Dept figures.
Police prosecuted 1007 drivers last year, up from 823 in 2014 and 637 in 2013, the department said in answer to a question from Legco member Kwok Ka Ki.
South Lantau police chief David Bennett, a former traffic policeman who took on the post early last year, has said he would make road safety a priority.
Anonymous banners getting govt message out on Lantau development
A series of banners promoting the government’s ‘develop Lantau’ message have popped up all over South Lantau in the last three days. The unusual feature is that no one has put their name to them.
What’s also unusual is that, unlike the government grand plan that includes inflatable water toys, cable cars and artificial islands, these messages include practical ideas that could improve people’s lives, like better internet and a functioning sewage system.
That said, these promotions are on the same page with the government on conservation, with one banner asserting that environmental protection should not take precedence over development.
Photos and translations of ten of the banners below.
(UPDATE: One Pui O resident posted on a local Facebook page that she’d seen former Islands District Councillor Rainbow Wong hanging the banners. Wong was the preferred Rural Committee representative for a decade until the local powerbrokers threw their weight behind Randy Yu at last year’s election. )
‘Support Lantau Development: Cut ferry ticket prices’ – Mui Wo roundabout Continue reading
CEDD seeks $72m for Mui Wo parking
The government is seeking HK$72.3 million from Legco to provide more parking spaces in Mui Wo.
It is also considering using the grounds of the shuttered Mui Wo Heung Yee Kuk Secondary School as a short-term parking solution.
The upgrade would increase capacity of the car park from 70 to 188 spaces, the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) said in a paper to the Legco Public Works Committee. Continue reading
Not opposing the road opening becomes approving the road opening
A bit more on the Islands District Council vote on the road opening. The councillors’ position is slightly more nuanced than previously reported, although their underlying attitude is clear. Here’s how it went down.
At the September 29 meeting of the IDC traffic and transport committee, Civic Party member Peter Yu moved a motion to oppose the road opening plan, making the essential point that it contravened the principle of the closed road.
This was amended by Mui Wo rural affairs committee head Wong Man-hon who moved that the council “opposes government opening of road without limit” because of the poor road quality. Continue reading
The end of the (closed) road
Hong Kong government decisions follow a well-worn path. A government agency endorses a dubious scheme cooked up by some self-serving committee, outcry ensues and after a token consultation the project goes ahead.
That has been the predictable course of the Transport Department plan to open South Lantau Road to non-residential traffic. While the extra 35 tourist buses and cars will have a small numerical imact on the current 2,500 or so vehicles on the road daily, the real effect is symbolic: it is no longer a closed road.
The TD statement makes it clear this is merely the start. When it promises to review the timetable for “the second phase” we can be sure that further phases will follow. The roads of Lantau, narrow and hazardous as they might be, are paved with gold for the developers, landowners and tourist industry hucksters that the government calls on for advice.
In this, as is almost routine, the government is well out of step with community opinion. Surveys by the Save Lantau Alliance, a green group, and the Friends of Lantau, led by District Council election candidate Lau King Cheung, both found well over 80% of local residents oppose any road opening. Continue reading
The boondoggle infinite loop
For once it was not just Lantau people fretting about our transport problems. This past weekend we had not one but two accidents which threw the spotlight on Lantau and our fragile connections to the world. Plus one excellent irony – of that more later.
The Sunday evening accident, where a returning Macau hydrofoil struck an object off the Sokos, was lucky not to involve any life-threatening injuries. Reportedly the object was a marine fender tyre. For anyone who has strolled the garbage-strewn Fan Lau beach nearby that’s no surprise.
As a sailing master told the SCMP, such accidents are probably unavoidable in Hong Kong’s less than pristine waters. It won’t get any better off Lantau’s coast when the Environment Dept starts shipping 12,000 tonnes of household waste in and out of Shek Kwu Chau daily, but hey, let’s not see that as a negative. Continue reading
Lantau Confidential 