COMMUNICATIONS
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omnibuses first registered before 1962 is operated to ensure that these vehicles comply with basic safety requirements.
The 4,677-foot Lion Rock Tunnel, opened in 1967 to provide a shorter alternative route between Kowloon and Sha Tin, is managed and operated by the Transport Department. The tunnel is the first and only toll road in the Colony. During the year, a total of 3,396,257 vehicles used the tunnel and $1,942,673.55 was collected in tolls, an increase of 25.2 per cent over the previous year.
CONGESTION
As Hong Kong's economic growth increases and the Colony becomes more prosperous, so does demand for adequate, depend- able means of transport. Public transport vehicles are obliged to increase in number, but at the same time there is a continuous rise in the number of private cars. The consequent demands on road space have resulted in increasing road congestion, particularly in commercial and industrial centres during peak hours.
Additional road capacity in heavily built up areas cannot be achieved without demolition of property. Traffic engineering and management methods, such as one-way systems, flyovers and clear- ways, provide a certain amount of increased capacity and better use of existing road space. But these alone will not solve the problem of road congestion, and it may be necessary to restrict the use of vehicles to achieve the maximum and most economic use of road space, and to allocate priorities between public and private transport.
In deciding these priorities it is essential to ensure that the various means of public transport provide an adequate, reliable service as a satisfactory alternative to private transport. At the same time it is essential that all forms of public transport make the maximum, economical use of road space. To this end action is in hand to im- prove the services offered by franchised buses, public light buses, hire-cars and taxis.
Public light buses, although filling a need in the public transport sphere, are a major source of congestion as they are continually stopping to set down or pick up passengers. It may become necessary to impose further routing and stopping restrictions or, more prob- ably, to change radically their mode of operation in congested areas by designating specified stops and not permitting them to stop other than at these places.
As far as taxis are concerned, action is being taken to encourage the expansion of radio-operated taxis to reduce the numbers plying