No evidence to say mainland motorists will drive us crazy

There's been much ado about mainland drivers entering Hong Kong, a lot of it based on assuming they are worse than Hong Kong drivers or at least unable to adjust to rules of the road here.

It's all very ironic. In several countries, 'Asian drivers' are often singled out by other residents as 'the worst' in their locality. What is essentially a racist canard is accepted by much of the population, based on anecdotal evidence, such as seeing slow, uncertain driving by people with Asian features. That means Hong Kong people who drive in those countries are automatically classed among the worst drivers.

As it happens, there's evidence that overturns this popular assumption. US government reports show that the rate of age-adjusted deaths in traffic accidents was lowest for 'Asian-Pacific Islander Americans'. For male drivers, who account for the bulk of traffic fatalities - so much for the canard about bad women drivers as well - the rate for this ethnic group was less than 60per cent of the rate for 'Caucasian-Americans'.

A 2011 study of 4.2million drivers was carried out in Canada's Ontario province. There, 15per cent of new immigrants are from China and many more are from other parts of Asia. It found new immigrants were 45per cent less likely to be in 'serious motor vehicle crashes', compared with long-term residents. The University of Toronto scholar who conducted the study guessed that immigrants drive slower.

In Australia, a study of 20,000 New South Wales drivers found that young Asian-born drivers had half the risk of being involved in a traffic accident compared with their Australian-born peers. The University of Sydney scholar heading the research team said Asian-born drivers were least likely to take risks and that the longer immigrants live in Australia, the more likely they are to adopt the riskier behaviour of the native-born.

A statistical study of the rate of traffic deaths in 2007 in the world as a whole included 11 East and Southeast Asian countries. Seven, including China, had below-average rates. The study's author commented: 'The Japanese and Singaporeans are great. China's figure is even more impressive considering how new driving is to many Chinese compared to Europeans and Americans.'