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COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
or 10 per cent. During the year, a total of 21 410 private cars was registered, constituting 69 per cent of the overall increase in the number of registered vehicles. Detailed statistics are given in Appendix 36. The demand for driving licences remained high. During the year, the number of licences held by Hong Kong residents totalled 676 014, compared with 618 478 in the previous year.
A third regional licensing office began operations at Kwun Tong on May 18, 1981, to serve east Kowloon and to relieve pressure on the licensing office at Dundas Street, Kowloon. The other licensing office is located in Central District on Hong Kong Island.
A vehicle inspection office was set up at the end of the year to take over from the police the responsibility of calling up defective vehicles for examination.
New regulations made under the Road Traffic Ordinance, came into effect on April 7, 1981, to provide for the issue of hire car permits to vehicles for different types of hire car services. By the end of the year, the total number of hire car permits issued for private hire car services was 1 169, for school hire car services 1 433, for hotel hire car services 12 and for airport hire car services 60.
Parking
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The Transport Department operates nine multi-storey car parks with 5 023 spaces, and five temporary open-air parks with 1 055 spaces and the Civil Aviation Department operates a car park at Hong Kong International Airport. Two of the open-air parks are lorry parks. During 1981, a multi-storey car park at Aberdeen and a new open-air car park in Kwun Tong became operational. The parking charges in car parks situated in the Central business district are $4 an hour in the daytime and $1 an hour in the evenings, slightly higher than the car parks elsewhere in the city. The open-air car parks have a lower rate, which ranges from 50 cents to $3 an hour.
Parking facilities are also provided by the private sector in about 40 multi-storey car parks with some 10 000 spaces, mostly in 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 an hour.
On-street parking spaces are provided in places where traffic conditions permit, and park- ing meters are installed to achieve economic use of the spaces. In August, 1981, there were 8 808 metered parking spaces throughout the territory, of which 700 were designated for goods vehicles. Payment is required from 8 am to midnight from Monday to Saturday, ex- cept at the Peak and the Hong Kong International Airport, where charges are also made on Sundays and public holidays to regulate demand. By August, 1981, all parking meters had been replaced by a new type of modern design. The majority of meters are two-hour meters with a rate of $1 for 30 minutes. On-street parking is controlled by Traffic Wardens who, to- gether with the police, apply a fixed penalty system for parking offences. The penalty is $70.
Vehicle Examination
During 1981 the Transport Department's five vehicle examination centres carried out 70 000 inspections. Most were in connection with safety and the registration and licensing of vehicles, including goods vehicles first registered before 1972 which became subject to compulsory annual examination from October 1, 1979. When licensed vehicles are found to have defects, the examiner can issue a vehicles repair order or suspend the vehicle licence 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.