ENG-1999 — Page 311

TRANSPORT

Parking

The management and operation of on-street metered parking spaces is contracted out to a private operator. Ön-street parking is provided when traffic conditions permit. At the end of 1999, Hong Kong had 16 000 metered parking spaces, with meter charging in effect mainly between 8 am and midnight from Monday to Saturday. Meter charging in areas of high demand has been extended to include Sundays and public holidays to better ration the use of the parking spaces.

The programme to replace mechanical parking meters with electronic parking devices was completed at the end of 1999. The electronic parking devices include smart-card-operated electronic parking meters and pay-and-display machines.

The Government owns 13 multi-storey carparks which provide a total of 7 200 parking spaces. They are operated and managed by two private operators under management contracts with the Government.

Off-street public parking is provided by the Airport Authority at the airport at Chek Lap Kok, the Housing Department in its housing estates and the KCRC at the terminus in Hung Hom. Private sector multi-storey and open-air public carparks in commercial/residential buildings and open-air lots provide more than 164 000 parking

spaces.

Park and Ride Scheme

A park and ride facility was introduced at a car park near the KCR East Rail Sheung Shui Station as a trial scheme in December 1997. It was well received by the public and attracted motorists to switch from private to public transport. The long term plan is to have the railway operators providing such park and ride facilities at selected stations along the West Rail, the MOSR and the Tseung Kwan O Extension which are expected to be completed in the next few years.

Road Safety

In 1999, there were 14 714 traffic accidents involving injuries, of which 202 were fatal and 2 808 were serious. There was an overall increase of 5 per cent compared with last year (in 1998, there were 14 014 traffic accidents of which 204 were fatal and 3 103 serious). In-depth investigations were carried out at 120 traffic accident blacksites to identify common accident causes and remedial measures were recommended at 103 of these locations.

Accident records are updated regularly to provide a basis for traffic accident analysis and formulation of road safety strategies. (Some accident statistics are given in the Appendices).

By the end of 1999, 50 red light camera systems were installed at signalised road junctions to deter motorists from disobeying traffic signals and 10 speed enforcement camera systems were installed at Tolo Highway and Fanling Highway to deter speeding. In the coming three years, it is planned to install 60 additional red light camera systems and 60 additional speed enforcement camera systems at other signalised junctions and expressways respectively.

With effect from October 1, 1999, the prescribed alcohol concentration limits in a driver's blood, breath and urine have been tightened from 80 milligrams, 35 micrograms, 107 milligrams of alcohol to 50 milligrams, 22 micrograms and 67 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, breath and urine respectively.

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