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with in providing room for the Tsing Fung Street flyover at North Point will not have been forgotten. Members will be the first to agree that such public objections must be dealt with carefully and humanely. This takes time. As an example, the extension of the Princess Margaret Road flyover over Prince Edward Road and Boundary Street mentioned by Dr. HUANG and now being processed, has given rise to no less than 113 apparently valid objections and 98 claims.
Dr. HUANG said that only common sense and determination are required. I am not sure what he means by this but the traffic engineers have to deal with circumstances as they are, not as they might wish them to be. When one is faced with making practical decisions, a careful assessment of priorities, staging of construction and patient attention to detail has to be added to common sense and determination if significant long term improvements are to be effected with a reasonable expenditure of time, staff and funds and with the minimum disturbance of private interests. It is also essential to keep traffic flowing in restricted space while work proceeds and I would like to express my appreciation to the valuable help we receive from the Police in this respect.
Perhaps at this point I might comment on Mr. NG's reference to the shortcomings of policemen on traffic duty. The Commissioner of Police has informed me that he is well aware of shortcomings among the rank and file performing this onerous duty. He is not blind to the fact that there is room for improvement in the knowledge of traffic law, the application of that law in a common sense manner on the street and in an appropriate and courteous attitude towards the public. He welcomes constructive criticism from Members of this Council, or any member of the public for that matter, which help to effect improvements. Unfortunately, Mr. NG's generalizations do not help in this respect.
Mr. P. K. NG quoted the revenue from licence fees as $27 million. On the other hand the expenditure on the system of roads which we are constructing was $43 million last year, will be $50 million this year and is planned to reach $200 million by the year 1973-74, a total of $500 million in 5 years. Mr. P. K. NG said that there were not sufficient traffic lights; we now have 198 installations (an increase of 33 over 1969) and 87 new ones are being planned. There is, in addition, a proposal now being investigated for area traffic control, under which the traffic lights in a large part of Kowloon will be controlled centrally by a computer, thus generally increasing the volume of traffic which can pass through the area.
Mrs. ELLIOTT spoke about the apparent slowness of road works. There is no doubt that in many cases this appears to be true, but because of the need to keep at least some traffic flowing while the works are in hand, and because of the complexity of the services beneath the road, which in most cases need renewal or extension, work has to be carried out to a complicated and often lengthy time table. This is often referred to, wrongly, as delay. It is not. It is merely the time required to carry out a complex job and most of our contractors do their part as quickly as possible in the circumstances.
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Many members complained about public transport mainly with reference to the franchised bus companies. Yet taking Kowloon for an example and comparing October 1970 with October 1969 I find that whilst 116 more buses were running over 8% more mileage some 20% less passengers were carried in October this year compared with last. There are various reasons for this but the main one undoubtedly is that the public now have the choice of using the services provided by the public light bus and have done so to a considerable extent. When all forms of public transport are considered, Hong Kong as a whole compares favourably as regards service and cost with many other cities which have to rely on purely surface media.
Mass Transit
This leads me to the subject of the underground railway which was mentioned by several members. Both the Transport Department and the Public Works Department agree with the views expressed by the consultants that without a mass transit system it will be impossible to maintain even the present level of mobility which exists in the Colony. The new study has established that construction is feasible without serious social disruption but the cost will be enormous. Studies are now proceeding to see how this crucial difficulty can be overcome.
In the meantime we have taken steps to ensure that nothing is done to frustrate the practicability of its future construction. Protection of the right of way is a continuous process demanding the ingenuity of architects and engineers and the co-operation of developers and I would like to express my appreciation to those who have so far been affected and who have assisted in meeting our requirements.
Parking
I spoke at some length on Government's parking policy in Legislative Council on 9th October, 1970 and will not cover the subject again here. I must reiterate, however, that responsibility for providing garaging for their cars in the home location rests with the private owners and with private enterprise. Government provides some, but will not be able to provide all, the land required for this purpose. Government at present erects parking buildings only in central business districts.
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with in providing room for the Tsing Fung Street flyover at North Point will not have been forgotten. Members will be the first to agree that such public objections must be dealt with carefully and humanely. This takes time. As an example, the extension of the Princess Margaret Road flyover over Prince Edward Road and Boundary Street men- tioned by Dr. HUANG and now being processed, has given rise to no less than 113 apparently valid objections and 98 claims.
Dr. HUANG said that only common sense and determination are required. I am not sure what he means by this but the traffic engineers have to deal with circumstances as they are, not as they might wish them to be. When one is faced with making practical decisions, a careful assessment of priorities, staging of construction and patient attention to detail has to be added to common sense and determina- tion if significant long term improvements are to be effected with a reasonable expenditure of time, staff and funds and with the minimum disturbance of private interests. It is also essential to keep traffic flowing in restricted space while work proceeds and I would like to express my appreciation to the valuable help we receive from the Police in this respect.
Perhaps at this point I might comment on Mr. NG's reference to the shortcomings of policemen on traffic duty. The Commissioner of Police has informed me that he is well aware of shortcomings among the rank and file performing this onerous duty. He is not blind to the fact that there is room for improvement in the knowledge of traffic law, the application of that law in a common sense manner on the street and in an appropriate and courteous attitude towards the public. He welcomes constructive criticism from Members of this Council, or any member of the public for that matter, which help to effect improve- ments. Unfortunately, Mr. NG's generalizations do not help in this respect.
Mr. P. K. NG quoted the revenue from licence fees as $27 million. On the other hand the expenditure on the system of roads which we are constructing was $43 million last year, will be $50 million this year and is planned to reach $200 million by the year 1973-74, a total of $500 million in 5 years. Mr. P. K. NG said that there were not sufficient traffic lights; we now have 198 installations (an increase of 33 over 1969) and 87 new ones are being planned. There is, in addi- tion, a proposal now being investigated for area traffic control, under which the traffic lights in a large part of Kowloon will be controlled centrally by a computer, thus generally increasing the volume of traffic which can pass through the area.
Mrs. ELLIOTT spoke about the apparent slowness of road works. There is no doubt that in many cases this appears to be true, but because of the need to keep at least some traffic flowing while the works
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
343
are in hand, and because of the complexity of the services beneath the road, which in most cases need renewal or extension, work has to be carried out to a complicated and often lengthy time table. This is often referred to, wrongly, as delay. It is not. It is merely the time required to carry out a complex job and most of our contractors do their part as quickly as possible in the circumstances.
Many members complained about public transport mainly with reference to the franchised bus companies. Yet taking Kowloon for an example and comparing October 1970 with October 1969 I find that whilst 116 more buses were running over 8% more mileage some 20% less passengers were carried in October this year compared with last. There are various reasons for this but the main one undoubtedly is that the public now have the choice of using the services provided by the public light bus and have done so to a considerable extent. When all forms of public transport are considered, Hong Kong as a whole compares favourably as regards service and cost with many other cities which have to rely on purely surface media.
Mass Transit
This leads me to the subject of the underground railway which was mentioned by several members. Both the Transport Department and the Public Works Department agree with the views expressed by the consultants that without a mass transit system it will be impossible to maintain even the present level of mobility which exists in the Colony. The new study has established that construction is feasible without serious social disruption but the cost will be enormous. Studies are now proceeding to see how this crucial difficulty can be overcome.
In the meantime we have taken steps to ensure that nothing is done to frustrate the practicability of its future construction. Protec- tion of the right of way is a continuous process demanding the ingenuity of architects and engineers and the co-operation of developers and I would like to express my appreciation to those who have so far been affected and who have assisted in meeting our requirements.
Parking
I spoke at some length on Government's parking policy in Legisla- tive Council on 9th October, 1970 and will not cover the subject again here. I must reiterate, however, that responsibility for providing garaging for their cars in the home location rests with the private owners and with private enterprise. Government provides some, but will not be able to provide all, the land required for this purpose. Government at present erects parking buildings only in central business districts.
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