Scheme has cost $37 million and it remains to be decided whether to spend another $240 million on implementing the full scheme. After the issue of the Pilot-Stage Report I carried out a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of the Government's transport policy for reducing traffic congestion and concluded that over the years there had been inefficiencies, including delays, inaction, uncertainties and inconsistencies in the implementation of Government policy and consequently the number of alternative options to electronic road pricing had been reduced.
98.
In the early 1970s, the number of private cars began to increase rapidly and the Government had the foresight to commission consultants to carry out a Comprehensive Transport Study that would assist in formulating a policy for the control of traffic congestion. Their report, submitted in 1976, concluded that without further restraint measures the number of private cars would increase from 124,000 in 1973 to about 370,000 in 1991. By using various model techniques the Comprehensive Tranport Study worked out the best policy option for the Government to follow in order to restrain the growth and usage of private cars to an acceptable level. It recommended a package of measures, including increasing the annual licence fees to four times the 1974 level so as to limit private car ownership by 1991 to 280,000 and the doubling of taxi fares and non-residential parking charges to reduce private vehicle usage. The Study report emphasized that as the use of private cars became more restricted by various restraint measures, taxis would become more popular and it was important that restraints on private cars must be accompanied by some control on the use of taxis by restricting the total number of taxis licensed and by increasing taxi fares.
99.
The Government's White Paper on Internal Transport Policy was published in May 1979, some three years after the completion of the Comprehensive Transport Study, and contained proposals resulting from a comprehensive re-examination of the Government's transport policy. Whilst the White Paper did not commit the Government to accepting every detail in the
7
recommendations of the Comprehensive Transport Study, it did accept the main conclusions and the measures recommended for limiting traffic congestion. The White Paper stated that even though the road system would continue to be developed as far as it was physically environmentally, economically and financially feasible, the necessarily limited road system had to be used with the utmost economy which meant encouraging the use of public and discouraging private transport. It accepted the Comprehensive Transport Study proposal to discourage the growth of private motoring, using parking controls and various fiscal methods as instruments of restraint so as to limit the number of private cars to 280,000 by 1991.
Page 150Page 151
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.