Smartphones Crowd Taxi Dashboards

This driver uses a lot of devices to hustle for customers daily

 

When you get into a taxi, does the driver have more than one mobile phone attached to the dashboard?

A colleague who hails cabs often will document the drivers' dashboard as well as the decorations by taking pictures and posting them on social media.

Cabbies claim they need at least four phones to be able to do their job efficiently and pull in as much as HK$40,000 (US$6,940) a month; without them they would make 40 percent less.

Taxi licenses are expensive and fares are cheap

One driver explained to a media outlet that he needed four smartphones and a tablet. The tablet is for picking up orders from several taxi apps, and two phones serve as walkie-talkies to communicate with other drivers for traffic information, road conditions, passenger hotspots and to refer orders. 

A third phone is to receive orders from Uber and the last one is his GPS device to check Uber hotspots when prices are surging.

"I don't want to waste my time looking for passengers on the streets or waiting at taxi ranks. All these tools help me manage my orders efficiently so I can seamlessly pick up passengers one after another," he said.

But now the government is considering limiting the number of devices on their dashboards. 

Transport minister Frank Chan Fan told the Legislative Council last month that the Transport Department was looking into regulating the number and location of mobile phones in vehicles, as well as the modes and purposes of their use.

Chan may regulate the number of devices in taxis

A law passed in 2000 stipulates drivers are prohibited from holding mobile phones in their hands or between their head and shoulders while the vehicle is moving. 

 However, the law does not cover reading information from a phone placed on the dashboard, or pressing the phone or swiping the screen as long as it is not in the driver's grip.

Transport sector lawmaker Frankie Yick Chi-ming pointed out the government pledged to study the issue in 2014 but nothing was done.

"This issue of taxi drivers placing too many smartphones on the dashboard has been going on for a long time. In an extreme case, one driver was found to have 13 devices," he said. "Some cabbies even use larger-sized tablets, which block their view of the road and affect their ability to drive safely."

He said they should be limited to two smartphones -- one for GPS and the other for communication.

But cab drivers say they are careful while driving and need many devices to be able to get as many fares as possible through car-hailing apps.

Old and new phones in this taxi

The real crux of the problem is reforming the taxi system in Hong Kong which has become too complicated, too old and too expensive. The taxi licences are worth HK$7 million a piece, the cars are 30 years old, the drivers average 70 years of age, and fares are very cheap.

So a driver needs to catch as much business as he can, and if a car-hailing app helps him find customers, he will use it. Government officials are so out of touch with the situation and have let the problem fester for so long that no one wants to fix it. The taxi system in Hong Kong needs a complete overhaul, but who is willing to tackle it?

The next best thing? Limit the number of devices on their dashboards...

Hong Kong's Press Freedom Under Assault

After the verdict Choy said: "Uncovering the truth is not a crime"

 

Press freedom in Hong Kong was under attack again today, with journalists no longer able to use public records to do investigative reporting for the public good without being prosecuted.

Bao Choy Yuk-ling, 37, is the first person to be convicted related to the July 21, 2019 mob attacks in Yuen Long, and yet she did not carry a stick and violently beat people in the MTR station that night.

There were an estimated 100 men in white shirts with sticks who assaulted commuters, and yet only 63 people have been arrested and yet to be brought to justice.

White-shirted men assaulted people July 2019

But the first person to be found guilt is the journalist who told the truth.

Through security surveillance video footage of the attacks, Choy went to the Transport Department's vehicle registration database to find out who owned vehicles that ferried some of those white-shirted attackers to the station, and how the police were slow to attend to the scene where 45 people were injured.

That information Choy found was reported in a documentary called "7.21: Who owns the truth", that has just won the Hong Kong Journalists' Association's Kam Yiu-yu Press Freedom Award, with judges praising it for the journalists' "detailed and professional search on public records".

Notably RTHK declined the award, as its head is in the midst of overhauling the public broadcaster's programs for political correctness.

In her verdict, Principal Magistrate Ivy Chui Yee-mei found Choy guilty of providing false statements, that she sought details of car ownership for reporting purposes rather than transport-related reasons. Chui fined Choy HK$6,000, or HK$3,000 for two counts of knowingly making false statements. The maximum penalty would have been six months in prison.

Choy tearfully spoke to the media after verdict

Despite not being named in the documentary, one of the car's owners filed a complaint to the police, which led to Choy's arrest in November.

When requesting the car ownership information, there is no box to tick "for media purposes", but only "others", which she did.

"I am of the view that whether the defendant had sought the information out of good faith was unimportant," Chui said. "I can be sure that the defendant... knew clearly she made the applications for the purposes of searching, interviewing, and reporting, none of which falls under the three options offered by the Transport Department."

Outside the court, Choy was tearful, but defiant.

"Today the court found me liable for a crime, but I firmly believe searching public records is not an offence, and neither is [upholding] press freedom," she said.

Standing next to her was Chris Yeung Kin-hing, chairman of the HKJA, who said today was "a dark day for the Hong Kong press".

Choy's supporters: "Journalism is not a crime"

He criticized the government for undermining press freedom the public's right to know, adding officials were, in effect, sheltering people with something to hide.

Dozens of supporters behind them, many RTHK workers, held signs that read "Journalism is not a crime" and "Defend press freedom".

Needless to say Choy's former employer, the government broadcaster, is not footing her legal expenses -- she is left on her own.

The government is making it harder for journalists to do their jobs. Last month Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor saw no point in giving reporters the privilege to conduct record searches using government databases, stressing the need to prevent doxxing or weaponising of personal information.

In addition the government says other public registers, including those on marriage status, land ownership and company particulars are under review to determine whether further similar administrative measures to protect data privacy are needed.

This move just makes it easier for corruption to happen more easily in Hong Kong, with no ability to hold any one accountable for anything.

Yeung (left) says today dark day for HK media

While Lam thinks this will not affect the financial markets, she is wrong. Capitalism depends on freedom of information. When it becomes more opaque, there is less trust in the system, which will only make Hong Kong's strength in the finance and banking fields atrophy and eventually wither away.

In the meantime Choy deserves to be rallied around for her courage. "I hope as a profession we can defend our value and our role, we cannot give in," she said.

 

Hey Commuters! Be More Considerate!

Deanie Ip (centre) to the rescue in teaching commuters how to behave

Earlier this week the Hong Kong Transport Department released a video featuring veteran actress Deanie Ip and various examples of the inconsiderate things people do while commuting in buses and the MTR.

There's a long list -- 12 of them -- which is why the video is just under three minutes long. The misconduct on the MTR includes eating in the train, hogging a pole, not giving seats to pregnant women or the elderly, rushing into the train carriage, and doing exercises in the carriage.

When it comes to the bus, no-nos are putting feet up on the seat, not wearing headphones while watching videos on smartphones, or is too engrossed with the phone to realize the bus as arrived at their stop, or not holding onto a handrail while the bus is moving.



Ip -- who also uses public transport -- chastises each of the people who are rude or inconsiderate, delivering funny lines. A woman practices kung-fu in the carriage and Ip says, "Wow! Your kung-fu is world class. How about a backflip?"

Meanwhile a young woman savours a macaron on the MTR and it turns out she has an afternoon tea set on her lap. Ip says, "You've gone way too far. Why not hotpot even? Eating or drinking is not allowed on trains."

Perhaps you shouldn't eat afternoon tea on the MTR...

There have been many comments saying the video portrays what commuters experience on the bus and MTR and think it's amusing or pleased these issues are being addressed.

Personally I find it embarrassing that the Transport Department has had to come out with this video to remind people what they should and shouldn't do. Why have people become so inconsiderate?

So far over 435,000 people have watched the video online. I can only hope from now on the number of rude incidents commuters encounter daily will decrease!

Hardly Bridging Hong Kong's Priorities

What the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge will look like, when it's done

Following yesterday's blog post about how the Hong Kong government isn't doing enough for its own poverty-stricken residents, it will have to spend another HK$11.8 billion on the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge.

The main section of the project, a 22.9km bridge and 6.7km undersea tunnel is situated in mainland waters. The Hong Kong government has to ask the Legislative Council for more money because a 2008 document says Hong Kong would pay for 50.2 percent of the 31 billion yuan cost of the main bridge, while the mainland would shell out 35.1 percent, and Macau 14.7 percent.

A map detailing where the bridge and tunnel are situated

How it got to those uneven percentages is strange, but there you have it, and Hong Kong has to bear the vast majority of the cost. Will we be using it 50.1 percent of the time too?

Lawmakers have told the government to give a detailed explanation and be prepared for lots of questions.

In February and October the Transport and Housing Bureau told lawmakers that the bridge would cost more than expected due to an "increase in labour and material costs as well as the refinement of the design and construction schemes".

However an exact amount -- HK$11.8 billion -- wasn't disclosed until yesterday.

Frankie Yick Chi-ming, chairman of Legco's transport panel, said there would be "lots of questions" from legislators when the government applies for more funding for the bridge.

Construction of the bridge's border crossing facility

"The key question I have is if 10 billion [yuan] is the final number," he said.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po is in Beijing and he admitted he didn't know yet how much of the budget overrun Hong Kong had to bear, but would be calculated according to "an established mechanism" as agreed by all sides when the agreement was signed.

So a huge infrastructure project that gives Hong Kong an opportunity to kowtow to Beijing that is costing billions in extra cost is worth more than trying to help the poor get a leg-up in society.

It's a sad state of affairs really. We need more resources to help our own residents live better lives than splashing out on white elephant infrastructure projects...

Increased Parking Fines get Honks of Protest

There needs to be increased enforcement of parking penalties and higher fines

Talk about backtracking.

Hong Kong has a lot of traffic jams during rush hour, and it's mostly due to private cars and vans waiting for their masters and mistresses to whisk them off to their next appointment. These vehicles are usually idling and clogging up roads where traffic should be moving.

And so the government submitted a proposal to raise fixed penalties for illegal parking and related offenses from HK$320 and HK$450 to HK$480 and HK$680 respectively.

But in a bizarre turn of events, lawmakers of all political stripes as well as those from the transport sector were so opposed to this that the government has backed down and lowered the fines to HK$400 and HK$560 instead.

Opposition claims there aren't enough parking spots

Under the revised proposal, making U-turn causing an obstruction and an unauthorized stopping at a bus stop, public light bus stand or taxi stand will be slapped with a fixed penalty of HK$400, while offenses like loading or unloading goods or picking up passengers in a restricted zone will face a fixed penalty of HK$560.

The proposal will be voted on at the end of June and are expected to take effect June 1 next year.

The revision came after feedback from the transport subcommittee and individuals claimed that an increase of 50 percent for illegal parking was "hefty" and that a phased approach should be considered.

In addition, lawmakers from across the political spectrum said there was an acute shortage of parking spaces for commercial vehicles, arguing the city should tackle this problem before penalizing those in the transport sector.

But isn't that the point of raising penalties to prevent illegal parking and other infractions? It's not about making the fines affordable. And besides, in the case of private car owners, if they can buy a car, they can surely afford a several hundred dollar fine.

Vehicles, like this one, clog up streets waiting for owners

As the government also notes, even when there are vacant parking spaces, motorists still choose to park their vehicles illegally "for their own convenience, or to save parking fees".

The number of penalty tickets issued last year was 1.6 million, almost double 820,000 in 2011. The number of licensed vehicles in Hong Kong is 710,000 as of February.

Meanwhile Liberal Party lawmaker Frankie Yick Chi-ming, who represents the transport sector, says he opposes the proposed rises in illegal parking fines, saying the government should be stepping up enforcement at black spots by towing away illegally parked cars.

"The government is barking up the wrong tree. Increasing fines can't deter illegal parking when the shortage of parking spaces is not resolved. Only strict enforcement such as towing away illegally parked cars can be a deterrent."

We agree with the government -- it's about selfishness and thinking they can get away with parking illegally in the hopes they won't get caught.

There definitely needs to be more enforcement and higher fines, but halving the proposed rise in fines is such a cop-out. Why bend to such pressure?

Don't we want more efficient traffic in the city?

Picture of the Day: License Plates

The cleverness of car owners abounds in Hong Kong

Ah Hong Kong. Some car owners like to think they are very clever with their license plates.

They are known as Personalized Vehicle Registration Mark, where the person puts in an application to the Transport Department, waits for it to be selected, then have their application checked against the requirements, make a deposit, have the plate name vetted, and then finally wait for it to go up for auction.

Yes, you have to bid for your own plates.

Some names that have been seen:

OOHLALA
THE CEO
PLAYBOY
PORSCHE (on a Porsche)
I M LATE
G1GGLES
EGGS
PIKACHU
HAPPY
D1AMOND
LOVE

And tonight I spotted this Porsche on my way home.

How funky!