Police stop a man on a bicycle in Kowloon West as part of a traffic crackdown that saw 245 cyclists and pedestrians ticketed (photo: police)
Hundreds of cyclists and pedestrians in Kowloon West were caught up in a police crackdown on illegal parking and other road-related offences on Tuesday.
Those on foot or two wheels accounted for 245 tickets, or one in 20 of the 4,500 tickets doled out that day, with police targeting jaywalking, careless cycling, illegal parking and yellow-box offences.
Police also towed 19 cars causing obstruction (photo: police)
Police also towed 19 cars causing obstruction. “Aside from causing traffic congestion, illegally parked vehicles pose a danger to road users,” said a police statement.
Separately, police in Kowloon East gave 2,095 parking tickets and towed six illegally parked vehicles in a similar operation yesterday.
Police have ramped up illegal parking operations lately and are on track to give a record 3.3 million parking tickets this year, a new high for Hong Kong. But pedestrians and cyclists are often targeted too, with hundreds ticketed for jaywalking or other cycling offences such as incorrect lights or no fitted bell in recent weeks alone.
7,316 pedestrians and cyclists were ticketed in the first six months of 2021, broadly matching the number of drivers caught for careless driving (7,951) in the same period.
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Categories: Law and Enforcement, On the Roads, Transit
I think some day soon I will also be ticketed for ‘jaywalking’. In our neighborhood there are lots of intersections where as a pedestrian you have to use one of these awful footbridges, which effectively means you have to walk 10 times the distance in addition to walking up and down. At other intersections you have to sometimes wait for three different traffic lights to turn green whereas as a driver you only have to wait at most once. The road design really feels like a big middlefinger to pedestrians.