ENG-1990 — Page 286

TRANSPORT

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buildings, housing estates and open-air lots providing over 50 000 parking spaces. On-street parking is usually metered and provided only at locations where traffic con- ditions permit. By the end of the year, there were 13 500 metered spaces throughout the territory, most of which operate between 8 am and midnight from Monday to Saturday. In Causeway Bay, Happy Valley, Western, Tsim Sha Tsui and Victoria Peak where parking demand is high, meter operation has been extended to include Sundays and public holidays to encourage a better turnover of parking spaces.

The government's policy is to continue to encourage the private sector to construct and run public carparks at locations of high demand.

Licensing

The number of new private cars registered rose from 28 097 in 1989 to 28 926 in 1990, an increase of three per cent. In 1982, when the total number of licensed private cars was about 190 000, restraint measures were introduced in the form of substantial increases in private car licence fees and first registration tax. Despite this, and the introduction in 1986 of compulsory annual inspections of six-year-old cars, the total number of licensed cars in December 1990 was 197 852, which represented a growth of 9.8 per cent from the total of 180 184 in December 1989.

The total number of registered goods vehicles in December 1990 was 130 045 compared with the total of 123 164 in December 1989, an increase of 5.6 per cent. Included in this total were 102 204 light goods vehicles which grew by 4.7 per cent compared with 1989. Due to the increasing use of these vehicles as private passenger-carrying vehicles and their comparatively higher accident involvement rate, would-be drivers of these vehicles were required in 1989 to take a separate driving test and all six-year-old vehicles were required to undergo a compulsory annual inspection in 1990. Further measures are being considered.

At the end of 1990, the total number of licensed vehicles in all classes was 363 520, an increase of 5.3 per cent over 1989.

The number of new learner-drivers dropped from 5 733 per month in 1989 to 5 283 per month in 1990.

Since the introduction of the Driving Offence Points System in 1984, 9 014 drivers have been disqualified, 96 have been served with warning notices and 817 have incurred penalty points for committing offences scheduled under the Road Traffic (Driving-offence Points) Ordinance. The figures for 1990 were 3 280, 23 764 and 17 667 respectively.

Vehicle statistics are at Appendix 38.

Vehicle Examination

The Transport Department operates five vehicle examination centres to conduct annual re-licensing inspections of all public service vehicles, goods vehicles over 12 years old and vehicles used to carry dangerous goods. Pre-registration and type approval inspections of new goods vehicles and public service vehicles and pre-registration inspections of second-hand imported vehicles of all types are also carried out. The construction of a new computerised inspection centre in Kowloon Bay commenced during 1989 and was completed in late 1990. This new centre will increase inspection capacity threefold and permit the department to meet its policy objective of annually inspecting all goods vehicles and trailers. Management and operation of the new centre is expected to be contracted out to the private sector early in 1992.