ENG-1992 — Page 257

TRANSPORT

Administration

The Transport Branch of the Government Secretariat, headed by the Secretary for Transport, is responsible for overall policy formulation, direction and co-ordination of internal transport matters. He is assisted by the Transport Advisory Committee, which advises the Governor in Council on major transport policies and issues. The committee has 11 appointed members, including the chairman and six government officials. The Secretary for Transport also chairs the Transport Policy Co-ordinating Committee which oversees the implementation of major internal transport policies.

The Transport Department and the Highways Department are responsible for the execution of transport policies and measures, and the highways construction and main- tenance programme.

The Commissioner for Transport, the head of the Transport Department, is the authority for administering the Road Traffic Ordinance and legislation regulating public transport operations other than railways. His responsibilities cover strategic transport planning, road traffic management, government road tunnels, car parks and metered parking spaces, and the regulation of internal road and waterborne public transport. He is also the authority for the licensing of drivers and the registration, licensing and inspection of vehicles.

While the Police Force is the principal agency for enforcing traffic legislation and prosecuting offenders, the prosecutions unit of the Transport Department also handles prosecutions involving safety defects found on buses, disqualifications under the Driving Offence Points System and breaches of vehicle safety regulations and government tunnel regulations. In 1992, the unit conducted 14 prosecutions in respect of buses and other vehicles, 4767 cases for which disqualification was sought under the Driving Offence Points System and 96 prosecutions in respect of breach of tunnel and other regulations.

A Transport Tribunal, set up under the Road Traffic Ordinance and chaired by a non-government official, provides the public with a channel of appeal against decisions made by the Commissioner for Transport in respect of registration and licensing of vehicles, issue of hire car permits and passenger service licences, and designation of car testing centres.

The Director of Highways heads the Highways Department, which is responsible for designing and building all highways, their repair and maintenance, and also for studying new railway networks.

Planning

The Updating of the Second Comprehensive Transport Study has been finalised. It provides a territorial transport infrastructure development strategy up to 2011, taking account of the port and airport projects. Key findings from this exercise have been fed into the Railway Development Study, commissioned to establish a long term railway development programme, and the Freight Transport Study. Apart from these studies, a Travel Characteristics Survey was carried out to obtain trip-making and socio-economic data from households as an aid to forward planning of transport infrastructure and services.

Construction works on some of the airport core programme projects, such as Tsing Ma Bridge and North Lantau Expressway, have commenced and works on other projects are

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