Research on Road Safety Policy in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is among the regions with the highest population density, the highest degree of urbanization, and the most developed economy in China. It adheres to the unique institutional concept of “one country, two systems, three jurisdictions”. Currently, the Pearl River Delta (PRD), Hong Kong (HK), and Macao separately form relatively complete traffic safety management systems, which improves the efficiency of road traffic safety management through the following four aspects: road user behavior, vehicle safety management, traffic safety infrastructure construction, and emergency accident response and traffic safety education. Overall, road traffic safety in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has improved year to year, and road traffic safety management policies have achieved remarkable results. In terms of road traffic safety laws and regulations, there are still significant differences among Guangdong (GD) Province, HK, and Macao. GD takes the Road Traffic Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China as a legal basis; each city in GD has administrative regulations, such as road traffic safety management regulations and road traffic penalty regulations, and public security organs are responsible for law enforcement. The road traffic safety laws and regulations in HK are mainly composed of seven ordinances and 27 subsidiary legislations, including the Road Traffic Ordinance and the Road Traffic (Driving-offense Points) Ordinance, and the Traffic Formation of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) is responsible for traffic law enforcement. Macao adopts the Road Traffic Law as the legal basis for road traffic management, and the Conselho Superior de Viacao (CSV), Transport Bureau, the Public Security Police Force are the enforcement agencies of the traffic law. In terms of road traffic safety standards, there are also significant differences among GD, HK and Macao regarding the identification of and penalties for traffic violations. Therefore, with the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, cross-border consistency among traffic safety standards and cross-border cooperation regarding road traffic safety management should become key measures for road traffic management in the three areas. GD, HK, and Macao can jointly build and share road traffic data and promote the establishment of cooperation mechanisms for cross-border traffic safety emergencies and daily management to improve the efficiency of road traffic safety management in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.