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Soure China Morning Post - autis
4/17
Hongkong's mobility must be preco
WE
E are at the stage now in the develop ment of Hongkong at which the existing fabric of the transport system is nearing breaking-point.
Part of a talk by the Commissioner of Trans- port, Mr A. J. She- phard, to the Rotary Club of Hongkong.
We have a road-system which is already saturated at
an extraordinary con- certain hours and in certain seen
of confidence in solidation There is also a con- places. siderable area of the road- Hongkong. Industry, tourism, all have system which is lost for the commerce, finance;
of pro- purposes of mobility, being attained new levels sacrificed to uncontrolled ductivity and profit. Similarly street-trading and parking.
there can be few other places where the worker can expect a rise of 6 per cent in his real income each year.
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cent compounded rate of ex- If I can persuade you here do not adopt a system which pansion in the vehicle popu- to treat all this as minor ensures the carriage of the proceɛ. lation, not the 15 per cent surgery to protect the health bulk of people along our main systen. which has actually occurred. of the economy I shall have traffic corridors is a way tion meet 3
Even at that rate, which is succeeded beyond my wildest which avoids the use of a commitment ca currently one third too low, hopes.
greatly increased number of revenues the bill for read improve- Now prepare for a shock. vehicles on the roads in those prejučiavu
example ments over the next 15 years All that I have said so far corridors. is $2,000 million. Moreover is but the preamble to &
We know now that this can encompasses almost discussion of the that
subway be achieved by installing a wa every improvement that is system.
subway system which can be constructed, with very litle com practicable.
We have it on the best ad- interference to existing build- 2000. In other words, even if the colony could find the money, vice available that, no matter ings, along routes which will fare could not be in- how we improve our road- eventually take 211⁄2 milk.4 can the roads
no matter how we people a day of the road faster than system; proved more or
We also know the cost envisaged in the Study or in succeed in allocating a proper face.
$2,000 million for the int There is an urgent require-
the public works programme, order of priority for road-
Remember too that road im. use, we shall not, in the '80s, tial system and a total of ment to bring both these ac- tivities under strict control It is essential to see trans- provements have to compete escape insuperable problems $4,400 million for the whole or Government's impressive port problems against this in the labour market with all of traffic congestion unless we of the recommended system. read programme, which is background of rising affluence the other candidates for the can transfer a mass of travel- mainly concerned with the and its twin rising costs, services of the construction lers to a means of transport
independent of our roads. improvement of primary That increasing afluence industry. zoutes for through traffic, should be partnered with ris-
Severe terms will be vitiated because the ing costs is neither abnormal domestic network of minor nor fearful particularly when, roads cannot absorb the local as in Hongkong, rising afflu- traffic requirement.
ence maintains а clear lead over rising costs.
a year
Clearly then the number of vehicles on the road system has to be controlled.
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On a more cheerful note; the revenues from the system are beginning to look though the total capital and the who: operating costs can be re- transport It is not too difficult to This assessment of course covered in addition
to the not on the basis servicing costs of the capital, transport of devise measures which will was prepared
the individual's free There is world-wide in- commercially have the effect of giving that The key-word is "mobility". Hongkong is often described I must here treat briefly priority in the use of roads choice of his means of trans- terest in the project which
ensure that its situation in as one huge industrial city the problem of increasing to vehicles which are most port is not to be too drasti- should
construction and equipment large spori we hear this so often that the vehicle ownership. There has important in the preservation cally restricted.
We could of course devise can be achieved at com- sipping blo phrase loses meaning.
been a steady rise of about of mobility for the majority The success of Hongkong is 15
measures to preserve mobility petitive rates. I am leaving We must en per cent
com- of people and goods.
These
without however even measures
the subway out of account for the present commonly attributed to its pounded in the vehicle popu- people a work force which lation for the past four years. will not be popular and there system which would work. the returns from the system has been able so far to move I am often accused of being will always be a minority of We could restrict in very in terms of developincut and own
appreciation which ensOTE to and fro more quickly and an alarmist when I predict people who will suffer from severe terms the individual's land
with rev in any the inability of our road- their introduction. The in- right to possess a private-car. would undoubtedly follow the system cheaply than
could aim at a road- system if we introduce it. other city of comparable size system to cope with this rate troduction of clearways, the We
giving absolute There will clearly be a with sal and complexity.
of expansion no matter how prohibition of stopping at the system
to the
buses, requirement, if Government ensuring it is improved. In fact I under- kerbside, the increasing sepa- priority
ration
and of pedestrians from mini-buses
goods- decides to go ahead with the for the Sun state the problem.
and
This will Hell system, for associating other The Long Term Road Study traffic, the creation of vehicle- vehicles
the
all abolition with
other would-be Government and private de. the regres which the Public Works De- free
velopments with its partment uses as a guide for of subsidised and free park- road users.
alovet of th all going to This in effect will be the struction. road improvements was pre- ing; these are
attitude forced upon us if we There must, of course, be operations. pared on the basis of a 10 per hurt.
more
-
It would be foolish and criminally negligent if we were to surrender this ad- vantage by failing to do what we know has to be done to preserve it.
The past three years have
zones,
to
be
7 Hab
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