reinstate or delineate new carriageway markings to guide motorists and pedestrians.
9.34. The installation of parking meters proceeded on schedule and there was a net addition of 881 metered spaces, partly as a result of which the number of free on-street parking spaces decreased by 646. However, the number of parking spaces for motor cycles increased by 451 and that for goods vehicles increased by 278.
Traffic Light Signals
9.35. A total of twenty additional sets of traffic light signals were installed at intersections and crossing places, nineteen on the Mainland and one set on Hong Kong Island. The total number of sets now in operation in the Colony is 183.
9.36. The design of a further 26 installations was completed during the year.
9.37. The first sets of vehicle-actuated signal equipment using inductive loop detectors arrived during the year. It is planned to commence installing this equipment early in the coming year. Similarly, equipment for 'wig-wag' signals at railway crossings and fire station exits has arrived and is ready for installation.
9.38. A report on the 'Walking Man' type of pedestrian signal aspect was published by the Traffic and Transport Survey Unit. On the recommendation of this report, orders were placed for the supply of equipment.
9.39. The phasing and timing of many existing signal installations were reviewed, adjustments being made where improvement was feasible.
9.40. Increasing use was made of computers to ensure that traffic signals were working efficiently and thereby keeping delays to motorists to a minimum. A computer program was prepared for the optimization of timings at isolated intersections. A TRANSIT traffic study was completed in which a complex simulation program was employed to optimise the settings of the Nathan Road Linked Signal System. For the longer term, investigations were begun into a computer controlled area traffic scheme by which the traffic signals on a large section of the Colony's road network would be operated by an on-line computer, to take into account the up-to-the-moment traffic pattern monitored by detecting equipment on site and transmitted to the central computer.
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