COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
169
Ordinance 1978 came into effect. This amendment provides for the charging of fees for vehicle inspections, together with the authority to issue vehicle repair orders and even to suspend vehicle licences if a vehicle is found to be unroadworthy. Annual inspection of older goods vehicles was made possible by the opening of the new semi-automated multi- lane Vehicle Examination Centre at Hoi Bun Road, Kowloon Bay.
Under the Traffic Accident Victims Assistance Scheme, which began operating in May, 1979, immediate cash assistance is given to victims of road traffic accidents and their depend- ants, irrespective of which party might have been at fault in causing an accident. To finance the scheme, each driving licence holder is required to contribute $25 a year, and each vehicle owner $75 a year upon the issue or renewal of his vehicle licence. The Transport Depart- ment is responsible for collecting the levies under this scheme and for crediting the amount to the Traffic Accident Victims Assistance Fund administered by the Director of Social Welfare. The total amount of levies collected in 1980 was $39.9 million.
With effect from September, 1980, a school hire car permit scheme was introduced with the issue of 1,408 hire car permits for vehicles which provide school transport for children - popularly termed ‘amah driver' vans.
Parking
Parking facilities are provided by the government in nine multi-storey carparks with 6,069 spaces, and four temporary open-air parks with 1,044 spaces. Two of the four open-air parks cater for goods vehicles. The most common rate in these carparks is $3 per hour in the daytime and $1 per hour in the evenings, but charges are generally higher for those near the business areas. The open-air parks have a lower rate which ranges between 50 cents per hour-to $2 per hour.
Parking facilities are also provided by the private sector in about 40 multi-storey carparks with some 10,000 spaces, mostly in the commercial-residential areas of Causeway Bay, North Point, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok and San Po Kong. The rate in these varies from $3 to $5 per hour.
On-street parking is provided in places where traffic conditions permit and parking meters have been installed to ration occupancy. There are 9,012 metered spaces throughout the territory, of which 677 are reserved for goods vehicles. Payment is required from 8 a.m. to midnight from Mondays to Saturdays. Where there is a need to ration parking spaces all through the week - such as on The Peak and at Hong Kong International Airport – charges are also made on Sundays and public holidays. In April, a programme was started to replace all older types of parking meters, which have been in use for 10 years or more, with meters of more modern construction.
On-street parking is controlled by traffic wardens who, together with the police, operate a fixed penalty system for parking offences. These penalties were increased from $30 to $70 in July, 1980.
A comprehensive review of parking policy, including the provision and management of carparks; the needs of lorry parking; parking in new towns; and major transport inter- changes, has been completed.
Shipping
Hong Kong is the seventh largest port in the world in terms of the tonnage of shipping using its facilities, cargo handled and the number of passengers carried, and has earned a world- wide reputation for the way in which it caters for the requirements of modern shipping.