Chinese officials have called for the full potential of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to be realised with increased cross-border driving on the cards

A PolyU aerospace researcher has been awarded $7 million from the government’s controversial Smart Traffic Fund (STF) to develop a mainland driving simulator for Hong Kong drivers, under the banner of road safety.

Assistant Professor Ng Kam-hung will run the 21-month project entitled “Development of human-centric driver support systems and training recommendations for safer cross-border driving during Northbound Travel for Hong Kong Vehicles”.

The project is one of around 60 so far supported by the government-funded Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) under a $1 billion government grant earmarked for transport research. PolyU has received funding for 21 projects, of which two are run by Ng.

According to the scant information available on the government’s STF website, the goal of the driving simulation project is “enhancing safety of cross-border driving”.

Neither STF nor Ng would respond to questions on the $7 million driving simulator, with HKPC citing privacy concerns.

“[S]ubject to The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD), we are not in an appropriate position to share the project details to public,” HKPC told Transit Jam this morning.

Cross-border driving concerns

While details of the cross-border driving simulator are hidden from public view, many observers agree the cross-border road safety issue merits attention – but that the problem is not the northbound drivers.

Driving across the border is fast becoming a hot topic, with two schemes – the “Northbound Travel for Hong Kong Vehicles” launched this year and the “Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles” slated for 2025 – easing the bureaucratic friction separating Hong Kong’s road system from the mainland and Macao.

Under the “northbound” scheme, some 64,000 “single plate” vehicles have already been granted access to Guangdong through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HKZMB), on top of the 16,700 “dual plate” Hong Kong cars which require motorists to provide proof of mainland business or wealth connections to cross the border.

For southbound mainland drivers, only a handful of high-ranking officials or the well-connected are, at present, allowed to bring left-hand drive cars into Hong Kong; but local dashcam channels are already replete with those few “FV” plate drivers behaving badly, driving on the wrong side of the road or showing little respect for local road laws.

The proposed “southbound” scheme will likely see several hundred mainland drivers crossing the bridge onto Hong Kong roads every day and the political ground is fertile for greater concessions to be made to mainlanders.

In a speech just this week discussing the Chinese Communist Party’s third plenum, China’s commerce minister Wang Wentao called on local officials and lawmakers to overcome restrictions and recognise the “enormous potential” of the HKZMB.

In response, former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said mainland drivers should be given more concessions, proposing to allow them free rein over Lantau’s roads.

Not everybody was happy to hear this.

A police source earlier told Transit Jam that allowing mainland drivers access to Hong Kong roads would raise issues regarding enforcement of speed limits and traffic laws.

And Roundtable lawmaker Michael Tien said the idea of more left-hand drive cars in Hong Kong was dangerous, telling the South China Morning Post “Driving habits on the mainland are very different from those in Hong Kong as what we find unacceptable can be commonplace on the mainland”.

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