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TRANSPORT

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registration number plates on all vehicles became effective on June 1. The Road Traffic (Driving-Offence Points) Ordinance was implemented in August 1984 and provides an effective method of discouraging persistent bad driving behaviour. Under the ordinance, drivers convicted of various road traffic offences concerned with road safety are assigned points and become liable to disqualification if they accumulate 15 or more points for offences committed within a two-year period.

By the end of 1985, there were 242 Road Safety School Patrols comprising over 7 300 members, whose main function is to ensure the safety of school children on their way to and from school. The Road Safety Council, an advisory body, continued to co-ordinate all road safety matters in the territory.

Road Pricing

The 1979 White Paper on Internal Transport Policy predicted that given the limitations on the expansion of the urban road network, it would be necessary to restrain the growth of private vehicles in order to avoid unacceptable levels of congestion. In May 1982, the government introduced a package of fiscal measures designed to restrict the annual growth in the number of private cars to five per cent. These included a doubling of the rate of first registration tax, a tripling of the annual licence fees and an increase of 70 cents a litre in the duty on petrol.

These measures have resulted in a reduction of about 43 000 in the number of licensed private cars although their effect was accentuated by economic recession. However, the rate of decline has been slowing down since the end of 1983 and in 1985 the drop in the number of private licensed cars was only 24 500 compared with 36 200 in 1984. The total number registered was 169 200, compared with 184 600 in 1984.

The government believes that high taxes on car ownership, although effective in containing congestion, are not the most equitable means of traffic restraint and that it is desirable to tackle the problem directly by reducing vehicle usage in congested areas and at peak periods. One method of doing this is Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) which-involves levying a charge for the use of busy roads at peak periods. In 1983, the government approved the pilot stage of an ERP system and consultants were commissioned to estimate its transport benefits, to develop and test the main technological components and to make a full report.

Work on the ERP pilot scheme was completed in June. The consultants estimated that with continued prosperity, car ownership would grow again if there was no further increase in the real value of annual licence fees. Despite the continued expansion of public transport and the road network, the urban areas of Hong Kong would experience severe and widespread congestion by the early 1990s. This congestion problem could be tackled by ERP or by further increases in annual licence fees. Either policy would be effective in reducing congestion to acceptable levels but ERP would permit higher levels of car ownership, be more selective in its impact on car usage and in general be more economically beneficial in travel time and cost terms.

The pilot scheme demonstrated that ERP is a technically feasible system that can operate reliably in Hong Kong conditions. The equipment was tested for six months and during this period, the movement of 2 600 vehicles fitted with electronic number plates was recorded accurately as they crossed electro-magnetic loops installed beneath the road surface at 18 toll sites in the central area of Hong Kong Island. This data was processed by a central computer which produced mock road-use bills for those vehicle owners participating in the scheme.

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