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COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
vehicles at locations where changes in the legal speed limit might be justified. With the help of university students on vacation, the parking inventory for Hong Kong was brought up-to-date and the level of parking by night and day was established. Students were also employed for the study of conditions at ferry termini and at selected pedes- trian problem spots; they also interviewed passengers on the newly introduced Central District/Kwun Tong ferry route to find out their opinions on the new route. Substan- tial progress was made on compiling an inventory of public transport routes, along with the processing of data on transportation collected during the population census in 1971.
Road Tunnels
The cross-harbour tunnel was built in three years at a cost of $320 million and is now operated by the Cross-Harbour Tunnel Co Ltd (a consortium including private enterprise and the government). Linking Causeway Bay and Hung Hom, it was opened by the Governor on August 2, 1972. A later ceremony was conducted by HRH Princess Alexandra on October 21, 1972 to mark the completion of the entire project. The tolls charged by the Cross-Harbour Tunnel Company vary from $2 for a motor cycle to $15 for a double-decker omnibus and $20 for a gōods vehicle over 5 tons; while the charge for a private car is $5. From the time the tunnel was opened until December 31, 1972 a total of 3,978,473 vehicles passed through the toll booths. In December, the average number of vehicles using the tunnel each day was 29,600.
Hong Kong's first road tunnel, the Lion Rock Tunnel linking Kowloon and Sha Tin, was five years old on November 14, 1972. Built by the Hong Kong Government, this tunnel is managed and operated by the Transport Department. Tolls charged are 50 cents for private cars and motor cycles and $1 for other vehicles. During the year, a total of 4.14 million vehicles used the tunnel and $2.39 million was collected in tolls, an increase of 23 per cent over the previous year.
Parking
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With one of the highest densities of traffic in the world, parking in Hong Kong becomes increasingly difficult each year. To improve traffic flow, the number of on- street parking spaces has had to be reduced, thus increasing the demand for off-street car parks.
Since 1966, it has been the government's policy to provide multi-storey car parks from public funds only in main commuter areas which have a high daily inflow of traffic and consequently a high parking requirement. In mixed residential and com- mercial areas, where the demand for parking exceeds the supply, certain sites have been earmarked for sale for private enterprise to develop as multi-storey car parks and any other activities that can conveniently be combined with car parking. Off-street open-air car parks are provided on a temporary basis on land awaiting development.
There are six government multi-storey car parks, managed by the Urban Council with a total capacity of 3,600 vehicles. An additional multi-storey car park is under construction and others are in the planning stage.