XN000022-1972-03-29 — Page 13

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Wednesday, March 29, 1972

Although in the long run they would not be regarded as efficient

contributors to the public transport system, the Financial Secretary said he

did not agree with the Hon. G.M.B. Salmon that they should be phased out as

soon as possible.

He pointed out that the reconstruction and expansion of the road

network and ancillary works and the improvement of public transport had to

be coupled with policies designed to optimise the use of available road space.

Overall Policy

The third element in the overall policy

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the restraint of private

transport involved first, freeing the roads of stationary vehicles; secondly,

encouraging the use of vehicles which were efficient users of road space in

terms of number of passengers carried; thirdly, discouraging the use of vehicles

which were inefficient users; and lastly, developing offstreet parking facilities

and charging for their use, as well as for onstreet parking where it could be

permitted, on an economic basis. Later, charges will have to be pitched at a

higher level as part and parcel of the overall control of the use of road space,

in the interests of the community as a whole, including motorists, he said.

"It is surely significant that, whereas some 6,000 trams, buses and

mini-buses carry almost four million passengers daily, our 100,000 private cars

carry only about 500,000," he stressed.

He added that the carrying capacity of even the present fleet of public

transport vehicles would be increased possibly by as much as 25 per cent if

the road had been clearer.

/In building