Driving Behaviour in Hong Kong

"Time is money"

A statement that is very appropriate for Hong Kong and manifested in the City's driving behaviour. Drivers come first, pedestrians, second. Speed is equated with money even at the expense of consuming more (unnecessary) amounts of fuel.

Driving behaviour is quite fascinating in Hong Kong. Drivers (especially on Hong Kong Island) will speed and accelerate regardless of the traffic congestion. Indeed, I have noticed many cars quickly accelerating and precipitously stamping on the brake amid traffic jams. Smooth acceleration and gradual braking has been a rare site. Cars cruising along at a constant speed is also quite rare.

From an environmental and efficiency stand point, such a practice is not smart. It ruins your fuel consumption (more fuel used) because more kinetic energy is dissipated as heat and thus lost. Therefore, it requires more energy (fuel) to re-accelerate because of the lost momentum that you would have had from gradually moving forward. A excellent explanation of this can be found here. Smooth acceleration and gradual braking does not use as much fuel and is less pressure intensive on the car's engine.

Drivers might have a perception that rapid acceleration and sudden braking might get them to their destination faster and such behaviour might be driven by economic motivations, however, mechanical engineers have shown that it is worse for the car’s fuel economy and ultimately for the environment as aggregate carbon emissions inevitably increase.

Key message: Is such driving behaviour counter-productive? Maybe. But if drivers feel that they are moving faster and more efficiently toward their destination, then switching to more gradual acceleration may prove unpopular.