Police use a mobile video unit to catch illegal loading or unloading on Queen’s Road Central

An illegal parking crackdown on Queen’s Road Central, boasting new video surveillance and street officers, has netted just 152 parking tickets over 10 days.

Hong Kong Island traffic police say they mounted the operation from 11 October to 21 October “to increase road-users’ sense of abiding by the law, to ensure the smooth flow of roads and to ensure road safety.”

But despite claiming “stringent enforcement actions at illegal parking black posts on the street”, just 152 tickets were given over the entire 10-day period. The force also found 55 vehicles not properly licensed or wanted for outstanding parking or traffic fines.

Informal studies of Queen’s Road Central show hundreds of illegal parking incidents every hour

According to Transit Jam‘s own research, the prosecution haul is a tiny fraction of the number of drivers illegally parking. Surveys last year at just one Queen’s Road Central blackspot, the junction with D’Aguilar Street, recorded prosecutable video evidence of an average 65 vehicles per hour illegally loading/unloading on the double yellow lines. Adding un-prosecutable evidence such as photos of illegal parking on the carriageway would increase this to hundreds of vehicles per hour.

Hong Kong’s police have stepped up illegal parking actions lately, now on track to deliver almost 3.3 million parking tickets this year, the largest crackdown in its history. But with two-day operations in other districts netting thousands of tickets, questions remain why the Queen’s Road Central campaign resulted in a relatively low prosecution rate.

As part of the 10-day operation, a police volunteer force also distributed leaflets on Cochrane Street and Wellington street to remind drivers that illegal parking could cause traffic jams or road safety issues.