ENG-2003 — Page 313

TRANSPORT

Eastern Harbour Crossing in September 1995, Tate's Cairn Tunnel in May 1996, Western Harbour Crossing in April 1997, Shing Mun Tunnels and Tseung Kwan O Tunnel in October 1997, Tai Lam Tunnel in June 1998 and Lantau Link in July 1998. They allow motorists to pay tolls by driving through designated toll booths without stopping. Since October 1998, the autotoll systems were unified so that a subscriber needs only one tag to use all tunnels and toll roads fitted with the system. In 2003, about 49 per cent of motorists used autotoll when passing through the tunnels and toll roads.

Parking

On-street parking is provided where there is parking demand and traffic conditions. permit. At year-end, Hong Kong had about 17 700 metered parking spaces, with electronic parking meter charging in operation mainly between 8 am and midnight from Mondays to Saturdays, and 10 am to 10 pm on Sundays and public holidays. The management and operation of on-street metered parking spaces is contracted out to a private operator.

The Government owns 13 multi-storey carparks which together provide about 7 000 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 and by the Housing Department in its housing estates. Park-and-Ride facilities have been operating at the Hong Kong, Kowloon and Tsing Yi Stations of the Airport Express, at Choi Yuen Road near the East Rail Sheung Shui Station, West Rail Kam Sheung Road Station in Yuen Long, and some commercial carparks located near the Olympic Station of the Tung Chung Line and the Hang Hau Station of the Tseung Kwan O Line. Private sector multi-storey and open-air public carparks in commercial/residential buildings and open-air lots provide about 184 500 parking

spaces.

Road Safety

In 2003, there were 14 436 traffic accidents that resulted in casualties, including 173 fatal accidents and 2 674 involving serious injury. The number represented an overall decrease of 7.3 per cent compared with the 15 576 accidents in 2002 (162 fatal and 3 118 involving serious injury). In-depth investigations were carried out at 150 traffic accident 'black spots' to identify common accident causes. Remedial measures were recommended at 123 of these locations.

By year-end, 111 signalised road junctions were fitted with red light cameras to deter motorists from disobeying traffic signals and 85 locations on strategic routes were fitted with speed enforcement cameras to deter speeding. Further expansion of the red light camera and speed enforcement camera systems will be considered in 2004.

A legislative amendment to extend the rear seat belt requirement to public light bus passengers was endorsed by the Legislative Council and will come into effect in August 2004.

As part of efforts to promote road safety, an open competition for the Road Safety Vision was launched in November. The objectives were to devise a road safety vision for Hong Kong and to motivate the public towards achieving the common goal of

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