TRANSPORT
Parking
217
During the year, 12 multi-storey carparks, including the new Shau Kei Wan Car Park which began operation in April, provided 7 489 parking spaces. These carparks are managed by a private company, while four open-air carparks comprising 520 car and lorry parking spaces and 24 motorcycle spaces are operated by the Transport Department. Other off-street public parking is provided by the Civil Aviation Department at Hong Kong International Airport and by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation at railway stations. The private sector also operated multi-storey and open-air carparks in commercial buildings, housing estates and open-air lots providing over 50 000 parking spaces. On-street parking is usually metered and is only provided at locations where traffic conditions permit. By the end of the year, there were some 14 200 metered spaces throughout the territory, most of which operate between 8 a.m. and midnight from Monday to Saturday at varying rates. In Causeway Bay, Happy Valley, Western and Tsim Sha Tsui districts and in the carparks of the Hong Kong International Airport and the Peak where parking demand is high, meter operation has been extended to include Sundays and public holidays.
Licensing
The number of new private cars registered rose from 19 870 in 1987 to 24 177 in 1988, an increase of 21.7 per cent. Despite the introduction of the compulsory private car inspection scheme since January 1986 for six-year old cars, the total number of cars licensed increased from 145 612 in December 1987 to 160 478 in December 1988, a growth of 10.2 per cent.
There was an increase in the number of goods vehicles – from 102 082 in December 1987 to 114 610 in December 1988.
Light goods vehicles grew significantly to 91 158 or 11.76 per cent in 1988 compared with 1987.
At the end of 1988, the total number of licensed vehicles in all classes was 316 305, an increase of 9.3 per cent over the previous year.
The number of new learner drivers rose from 5 800 per month in 1987 to 6 100 per month in 1988, representing a 5.7 per cent increase.
Since the introduction of the Driving Offence Points System in 1984, a total of 3 610 drivers have been disqualified, 51 417 have been served with warning notices and 244 676 have incurred penalty points for committing offences scheduled under the Road Traffic (Driving-Offence Points) Ordinance.
Vehicle Examination
The Transport Department operates four vehicle examination centres at Kowloon Bay, To Kwa Wan, Sheung Kwai Chung and So Kon Po, for annual re-licensing inspections of all public service vehicles, older goods vehicles and vehicles licensed to carry dangerous goods. And the department seconded its vehicle examiners to three regional police vehicle detention pounds to inspect vehicles involved in accidents or suspected to be defective. Airport vehicles were inspected at the airport, while franchised buses were examined at the company depots.
Goods vehicles, special-purpose vehicles and trailers manufactured before 1978 are required to be inspected before relicensing. Annual inspection of these vehicles will be introduced in 1991, upon the completion of the new Vehicle Examination Centre at Kowloon Bay.
From April, all private cars manufactured before 1982 were required to be examined at one of the 17 designated car-testing centres. A total of 67 900 cars were examined during the year under the scheme, compared with 52 079 in 1987.