17
Wednesday, March 29, 1972
"If the policy of restraining the use of road space is to be achieved
by raising parking charges, then there must always be a certain vacancy ratio
in the parking facilities available in the central business areas," he said.
"At what level of charges this can be achieved will depend upon three
factors: the strength of demand, which in turn will depend partly on the
availability of public transports; the supply of parking spaces in the central
business areas; and the supply of parking spaces on the outskirts of the main
business areas, the provision of which will be more attractive to private
developers the higher the level of parking charges in Government-owned car parks
in the central areas," he explained.
Private Car Parks
It was true that, at a given level of charges, there could be an
over-provision of private car parks in terms of the policy objective of limiting
the number of cars using the roads (as opposed to the other objective of getting
stationary cars off the roads).
At this point, however, there would have to be a planned restriction
on the availability for sale of car park sites.
"My honourable Friend Mr. Szeto seemed to suggest that the only problem
was to find sites for car parks and that this could be done by a Colony wide
survey.
But there is no real shortage of such sites in relation to the real
which is a shortage of road space," he
shortage the inescapable shortage
stressed.
/Thus,