XN000022-1995-02-15 — Page 32

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At this juncture, may I acknowledge the "action plans" which have been suggested not only by the MTA but also by other organisations. But I hasten to add that many of the ideas put forward in fact reflect and endorse the action which the Administration has already begun to take or intends to take. It will be totally misleading to think that the Administration has not had the common sense or the initiative to pursue such measures as more effective road management schemes, the introduction of bus lanes and other priority schemes for public transport or, as the Honourable Emily Lau worries, recognised the need to tackle road openings more effectively. We will be stepping up our efforts in these directions.

Other ideas such as week end licensing, car pooling, park and ride, increasing down-payments for new cars, have been put forward by Members as alternatives to tax increases and these will certainly be considered. In particular, I shall follow up the Honourable Simon Ip's comments that on tackling dangerous driving and accidents which indeed do result in traffic delays. However I have to emphasise to Members that this community must bite the bullet eventually. The reality is that increasing wealth means more cars and we cannot possibly accommodate unrestrained growth in car numbers in such a small place as Hong Kong. This conclusion is inescapable. If we close our eyes to this, then all we can expect is traffic gridlock and worsening air pollution. No road building programme, no matter how ambitious, and no traffic management initiative can alter this conclusion.

Vehicle Quota System

One alternative to using tax increases as a means of constraining private vehicle numbers would be to introduce a vehicle quota system to limit the number of new vehicles registered. The recent submission to the LegCo Transport Panel was in response to a request by Members for more details on how such a quota system might be implemented. However, as the Transport Panel has noted, such a system would not be without its problems since it would inevitably lead to speculation and, like tax increases, would almost certainly raise considerably the cost of owning a private car. To put this particular proposal on the quota system in perspective, I can perhaps best describe this as being on the backburner.