I’m back in Singapore, not that I anticipate it. I predict withdrawal symptoms to kick in real soon. Being a blog, I shall briefly, and in detail, mention a few things about my trip to Hong Kong.
In this trip, I hold 3 persona. First, being a returning ‘overseas student’; second, a tourist; third, a local. I shall write posts from each perspective.
On my return to Hong Kong, immigration was speedy (under 3 minutes as there was no queue) as I held the permanent ID card which allowed me to use dedicated lanes, as opposed to the long long passports lane. One thing to note, Singapore customs do not give its citizens or PRs such privileges. Huge and clean and world class airport no doubt. What was different this time was that my uncle managed to secure a vehicle to transport us (my father and I; mother and sister camping somewhere else already) to my grandmother’s house (near Mong Kok) where we’ll be camping until my family’s departure. The first thing I’d noticed was that the vehicular composition on Hong Kong roads are 90% public transport (buses, trams, taxies, mini-buses), 8% trucks and 2% private.
My first meal (dinner), at 9 pm, was Beef Brisket noodle at a neighbourly noodle house. That was my first encounter with traditional Chinese wall-long menus. The following days are decked with lunches and dinners with various extended families. Some 11 days of it spent as an ‘overseas student’, meeting and greeting, a little shopping (parent sponsored) and eating.
This was also where I discovered the powers of non-self-declared world class public transport. No need the government to declare it; foreigners will automatically. Roads are lined with bus stops (pictures do the bus route magnitude no justice) as long as the roads themselves. There are just so many bus routes that they have to stagger it over a few “stands” to prevent inefficient bus pile up while stopping. At every bus stop “stand”, detailed route and pricing information is displayed. No need bus guides and guess work. Another thing I’ve noticed is that 99% of all buses are double-decker, even those that need to climb steep 1:12 gradients. If you think double-decker buses are slow, then I suspect you’ve been trapped in Singapore for way too long. I can safely say that the HK buses have cruising speeds that of Singapore Buses’ maximum permitted speeds (when traffic conditions permit). And such conditions are permitted on highways and mountain routes.
Seriously, what’s the point of such wide and well paved highways when the speed limit is so low, creating a speed-induced bottle neck rather than sheer volume.
But I guess such efficiency there can be due to the price structure. Public transport rides can be considered (relatively) more expensive but with half the travelling time, double the speed and efficiency, in spite of the traffic volume (when compared to SG). The pricing is simple. It’s payment per-entry, regardless of the distance travelled; however, how late into the route one boards determines how much less one pays. This sort of encourages people to take the bus almost all the way (and choose routes carefully from the multitude), creating demand, and sort of forces the bus companies to create point-to-point routes, increasing travelling efficiency. No such thing as merry-go-round through the whole neighbourhood nonsense. That’s also probably due to the way Hong Kong is build up. 1 long main street which runs the length of the whole area. Just board any of the tons of buses there and you can get almost anywhere in less than 40 minutes (with the exception of crossing harbour at peak hours).
The important thing is that one can get from any point to any point purely via at most 2 bus routes, no need for trains.
The next amazing thing is that the whole MTR fleet looks brand new compared to how they looked approximately 2 years ago. They do real train upgrades and don’t remove chairs, calling them an upgrade. Streamline (plug) doors, digital and dynamic train position updates at every train door, truly designed tourism and commuter-friendly. At 8 carriages and 5 pairs of doors per carriage, they have a frequency of 2 minutes during off-peak hours. At peak hours, trains just come pouring one after another. Even though they are packed, I can see that they’ve at least done what they can do to increase capacity apart from increasing fares (like what SG likes do without delivering the improvements). Pricing is based on distance travelled, rather similar, albeit a little more expensive than SG. The MTR stations are really built for high-capacity. No such thing as cramming up an escalator to the concourse, and everyone stands to the right according to protocol, without the need for signs and reminders. The important thing is that magnetic fare cards are still in use despite the Octopus Card being available as early as 1997. No stupid things like extra $1 deposit on single-trip tickets.
Speaking of Octopus, it has really widespread adoption. Almost anything imaginable (notably except taxies) can be paid for by the contactless system. No stupid things like Ez-Link + Cashcard for payment.
On the ground level, HK employs a 4 state traffic lighting system. It greatly reduces traffic lag caused by slow responses by drivers due to the very interdependent road grid network. Another distinct feature is that all traffic junctions are blind-friendly since almost at least 5 years ago. At every crossing, there are elevated markings and ticking sounds to announce signal status to the visually impaired.
I’ll talk about the Electric Trams next. S$0.40 ride, regardless of distance travelled, at speeds faster than foot, slightly slower than buses.
