TRANSPORT
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planned for the West Kowloon Expressway, North Lantau Expressway and part of the Tolo Highway.
The Tsing Ma Control Area, an expressway network comprising some 17 kilometres of bridges, tunnels and expressways providing the only road access to Chek Lap Kok Airport, will be equipped with the most extensive traffic control and surveillance (TCS) system ever introduced in Hong Kong. Scheduled for completion in May 1997, the TCS system will provide a high degree of automation to regulate traffic flow and to provide useful information to motorists under numerous operating scenarios.
These include accidents, vehicle breakdowns, roadworks, and adverse weather conditions. Elaborate surveillance and control gear is available for the system's disposal, including CCTV, automatic incident detectors, environmental sensors, emergency telephones, changeable regulatory and advisory signs, variable message. signs, lane control signals and radio links.
Parking
The management and operation of on-street metered parking spaces is performed by a private operator under a management contract. On-street parking is provided where traffic conditions permit. At the end of the year, there were 13 900 parking spaces in the territory, with meter charging mainly between 8 am and midnight from Mondays to Saturdays.
Meter charging in areas of high demand has been extended to include Sundays and public holidays to facilitate a better turnover of parking spaces. The maximum meter charge was $2 per 15 minutes.
The government owns 14 multi-storey carparks which provide a total of 8 050 parking spaces. They are operated and managed by two private operators.
Off-street public parking is also provided by the Civil Aviation Department at the Hong Kong International Airport, the Housing Department in its housing estates and the KCRC at its terminus in Hung Hom. Private sector multi-storey and open-air public carparks in commercial/residential buildings and open-air lots provide more than 145 000 parking spaces.
Central-Mid-Levels Escalator and Walkway System
This covered system was opened in October 1993. Starting from two footbridges over Des Voeux Road, Central, it passes through Central Market and over the narrow streets in Central and ends at Conduit Road. Managed by a private operator under a management contract, the system was used by an average of 34 000 people daily in 1996.
Licensing
By the end of the year, Hong Kong had 467 833 licensed vehicles in all classes, representing an increase of 1.97 per cent over 1995.
New private car registrations fell 4.53 per cent, from 23 257 in 1995 to 22 203 in 1996. This brought the number of licensed private cars to 293 381 in December, an increase of 2.77 per cent over the past year.