An unlicensed duck can land a fine 50 times the penalty of a vehicle belching smoke

[markwj]

Hong Kong as Dirtiest Financial Center Is Tsang’s Legacy (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-21/hong-kong-as-dirtiest-global-financial-center-is-tsang-s-legacy.html)

Harboring an unlicensed duck in Hong Kong can land a fine of HK$50,000 ($6,440) after the world’s first human deaths from bird flu were recorded in the city 15 years ago. That’s 50 times the penalty for driving a vehicle belching smoky fumes.

Failure to force aging buses and trucks off Hong Kong’s streets is a key cause of air pollution that results in more than 3,000 premature deaths a year, according to Civic Exchange, a think tank. In contrast, the H5N1 virus has killed 350 people worldwide since 1997, World Health Organization data show.

Nice twist on a largely ignored story, but nice to see Bloomberg stepping up.

[domenick]

I wonder if a citizen-led campaign could help Hong Kong turn things around. As you alluded to on Transport Evolved, this city is an EV paradise just waiting to happen.

High voltage infrastructure? Check.? No long distance travel? Check. Moderately wealthy population? Check. Availability of electric vehicles? I don't know how available Chinese imports are but I they have a Tesla store (http://www.teslamotors.com/hongkong) (many Model S orders?), Brammo has a distributor there (http://www.brammo.com.hk/). Don't know how available the BYD e6 is there but there are 50 coming as taxi's along with some charging infrastructure (http://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmontlake/2012/02/28/buffet-backed-chinese-automaker-byd-eyes-hong-kong-taxi-fleet/).

Sp, how do you get Hong Kong residents interested in going electric?

[markwj]

So, how do you get Hong Kong residents interested in going electric?

However much I like, and approve, of Electric private cars, and push adoption of them in Hong Kong, I really am beginning to feel that I'm not pushing for the biggest hit.

The sad fact is that the majority of private cars in Hong Kong are modern BMWs, Mercedes, Audi, etc. Luxury cars - and, they are relatively clean (even though they burn high octane gas). The taxis and minibuses are 99.9% (or maybe 100% by now) LPG. What is left are the diesel guzzling, old, outdated, and noxious fume spewing trucks and buses.

No matter what we do to push adoption of EVs to the private vehicle fleet, we're probably only addressing reducing perhaps 5% of the pollutants.

The big gains will be from the commercial and public transportation sectors. And that is going to need a huge investment by the government to resolve. The biggest impact would most likely be - #1 trucks, #2 buses, #3 private cars.