Page 118 of 146
193
192
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Although the Urban Council has no jurisdiction or responsibility over transport, I would like to make some points about transport in the Urban areas because, in my view, the Urban Council should have jurisdiction and responsibility for transport, especially now that District Councils do have an advisory role to play regarding transport problems in their Districts. There is a great deal of transport experience and expertise within the membership of this Council and because of our work in Wards and on District Councils we are in far closer touch with the real transport problems than Government's Transport Department appears to be. For the record I don't know one Urban or City Council in any large city in the world not responsible for transport matters.
I could easily speak for two hours about Hong Kong's transport problems and possible solutions but the only two points I want to make in this Council are about road safety.
The total casualties on our roads in the first nine months of 1981 were 17228. Out of these 360 were fatal and 4971 were serious. A very rough breakdown shows that about 26% of the accidents involved public transport including PLBs, taxis, as well as franchised public buses. A further 16% involved goods vehicles, 13% involved motor cycles and the balance 45% involved private cars. In relation to the number of vehicles on the road, motor cycles are obviously the most dangerous followed by all forms of public transport. However, these figures refer to all road accidents and I am mainly concerned with pedestrians. The pedestrian percentages are much too high: 62% of the fatal and 47% of the serious casualties were pedestrians. Fatal casualties increased by 10% over last year.
The solution, first and foremost, must be separation of pedestrians from traffic. This costs money and takes discipline and also involves fines. Actual physical separation is not always possible, so we must enforce pedestrian discipline by making them obey traffic lights. Fines for pedestrians crossing against the lights should be increased considerably and enforced by fixed penalty tickets. Jay-walking must also be prevented by putting up fences where this is possible and by raising fines and enforcing these in large scale campaigns also by fixed penalty tickets. To the pedestrian who objects to this infringement of his freedom one can only say that it is his life which is being saved. However, although necessary, this is a negative approach. The positive approach is much more conducive to safety and involves building motor way type roads wherever possible which, in any case, must be Government's top priority, not just for road safety, but for the development of the Territory and the City. That the building of a good road network has immediate economic effect can be seen by the recovery of West Germany after the last war when the excellent transport infrastructure made goods cheaper in Germany than elsewhere in Europe. In Hong Kong a really good motorway system would have an immediate effect on land prices since a great many inaccessible places would become available for development of both domestic and commercial premises. That, however, is by the way. What is important is that traffic must be separated from pedestrians. That is only commonsense. The record shows that there are far fewer accidents of any kind on separated roads, and any money spent on transport infrastructure saves lives and prevents tragedies. Although it is wrong to quantify such things in monetary terms, accident prevention is also economically beneficial because it relieves our hospitals and social services and charities from very heavy burdens.
Let me make one more point about safety. From experience gathered in the rest of the world over the past 25 years, I think it is imperative that seatbelts are made compulsory at least for the front seats of all motor vehicles, and I also believe that taxis and minibuses should be fitted with seatbelts in the passenger seats. Many of the injuries in accidents involving especially minibuses could be prevented if seatbelts were fitted and used. I have seen car passengers killed at 20 mph because they were not strapped in.
Lastly, Mr. Chairman, I think, Government should be commended for the setting up of District Councils but I believe there is an inherent danger that if Government does not take District Council's advice there will be considerable frustration and the experiment may become counter-productive.
I believe, in fact, that if these Boards are left to be just advisory, they will not really serve any useful function. One hopes that Government's aim will be to form a proper Democratically elected local Government on the lines of British usage so that the District Boards become Borough Councils and this Urban Council becomes a Greater Hong Kong Council on the lines of the Greater London Council.
Sir, I support the motion.
(Mr. CHAN Chi-kwan left during Mr. SULKE's address.)
MR. EDMUND W. H. CHOW (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, I would like to speak on a few topics which are both within and outside the jurisdiction of the Urban Council.
First of all, I wish to comment on the fact that several travel agencies have recently closed down resulting in unnecessary losses incurred by the consumers. Such incidents were brought about, on the one hand, by the 'black sheep' of the tourist industry who acted in a shameless way and, on the other hand, by the Government which adopted an irresponsible attitude. The Government has thus become 'an accessory to a crime' for adopting such irresponsible attitude towards these incidents. Up to now, the Government still reiterates that it has no intention to put tourist industry under control through legislation despite the outcries of public opinions. I regret to say that we are really perplexed by the Government's attitudes.
Page 118 of 146
193
192