In the past I had talked about habits of Hong Kong people rushing all the time. This is unlike the hurrying that Tokyonite do. In general, people in Tokyo are polite to each other even when they are in a hurry. Where as in Hong Kong people are not as courteous.
Hongkies have this urge to saviour every seconds in their life, even if those few seconds may actually safe their own lives. Case in point is the intersection of “Peking Road” and “Kowloon Park Drive” in Tsim Sa Tsui in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
As you can see from the pictures below:
I simply stood there for just 3 minutes, there was over 30 people of all ages and nationalities who ignored the numerous posted warning signs and crossed Kowloon Park Drive illegally.
It is not that the Hong Kong government did not try to resolve this problem as you can see from the signs posted.
These signs are in 3 different languages including “symbols”, Chinese and English, so no one should be able to complain that they do not understand the signs.
People just do not want to waste the few minutes it takes to use the subway. While taking these pictures I saw large buses, taxis, tourist buses and fast moving mini-buses slam on their brakes to avoid the pedestrians crossing Kowloon Park Drive while the lights are green for the on coming traffic.
It is like wearing seat belts in cars, governments of all countries enforce seat belt laws just for the sake of the car occupants’ own safety, but many people still do not comply. In this case the signs and barriers are to protect the safety of pedestrians but people continue to endanger themselves. Only for the sake of saving a few minutes of their lives, but never considering that their lives are the thing they should be saving.
May be the government should invest more money on enforcing the regulations rather than the passive approach of putting up more and more signs, which really do not make the area look too good.
