Picture of the Day: Where's the Traffic?

The near empty Harcourt Road in Wan Chai towards Causeway Bay

This afternoon I had a lunch appointment followed by a meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong which is above Kowloon Station. I didn't finish until very late afternoon and had to get back to the office and so I took a taxi.

For traffic at 4.40pm there weren't that many cars on the road along the Western Tunnel, and then on Hong Kong Island we went along Lung Wo Road, passing by the Central Harbour front area where Clockenflap would have been set up by now if it hadn't cancelled, then cut onto Harcourt Road.

This main artery is usually choc a block with cars inching towards the Cross Harbour Tunnel, but since it has been blocked for a week by protesters, traffic was amazingly light. I could hardly believe it that I had to take a picture.

But once we got onto the Canal Road flyover, the regular traffic jam was back, slowly going up the on ramp, then passing Times Square before getting off. There were so many cars going towards the shopping mall that the taxi driver dropped me off a block away to avoid getting stuck.

The closure of the Cross Harbour Tunnel has affected hundreds of thousands of commuters daily and it is unclear when it will be reopened. But for the rest of us, having feeder routes to the tunnel completely empty have been a strange but welcome relief.