Supplementary to Question No. 7 in the
Legislative Council on 13 April 1985
Mr. CHEN Shou-lum :- Sir, in view of the significant drop in the number of
vehicles registered and also the improvement in traffic conditions as a
result, does this mean the ERP Scheme might not be required?
Secretary for Transport :- Sir, experience suggests that it will be unwise
to assume that vehicle registrations will continue to fall and indeed new
registrations are already beginning to pick up. I therefore believe it
would be sensible to evaluate all methods of dealing with road congestion,
apart from increases in the cost of motoring through increase taxes, as
members know we are in the middle of an experiment to see whether the ERP
System is technically feasible. Potentially it offers a more efficient
and fairer way of controlling congestion and I think we should fully assess
the scheme and public reaction to its results to see whether in practical
terms ERP could live up to its potentials.