ENG-2013 — Page 266

Parking

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Transport

On-street parking is provided where there is demand and only when traffic conditions permit. At year-end, Hong Kong had about 18,000 parking spaces with electronic parking meters in operation, managed and operated by a private operator under government contract.

The government owns 13 multi-storey public car parks and a 'Park-and-Ride' public car park in Sheung Shui which are run by two private operators under government contract and provide about 7,000 public car parking spaces.

In addition to government car parks, off-street public parking is provided by the Airport Authority at the Hong Kong International Airport, the Housing Department and The Link REIT in some public housing estates, and by the private sector in multi-storey commercial/residential buildings and open-air public car parks.

Park-and-ride facilities are operated by the MTRCL at Choi Hung Station on the Kwun Tong Line, at Hong Kong, Kowloon and Tsing Yi stations on the Airport Express, Hung Hom Station on the East Rail Line, Kam Sheung Road Station on the West Rail Line, and at some commercial car parks located near Olympic Station on the Tung Chung Line and Hang Hau Station on the Tseung Kwan O Line. In all, there are 197,500 off-street public parking spaces (excluding those in government car parks).

Road Safety

There were 16,089 traffic accidents involving injuries in 2013, of which 2,476 were serious and 128 were fatal. This compares with 15,894 accidents in 2012, of which 2,385 were serious and 116 were fatal. Traffic accidents involving injuries increased by 1.2 per cent in 2013, compared with 2012.

Public Transport and the Environment

The government bases its plans for public infrastructure projects on sustainable development principles. Together with the operators, it also takes a range of measures to reduce the adverse impact on the environment of road-based transport, including the rationalisation of bus routes and the deployment of more environment-friendly buses.

All franchised buses are now equipped with engines that meet the European emission standards (known as Euro engines). New buses purchased by franchised bus companies must be of Euro V emission standard and the bus operators have also been replacing old buses before they reach 18 years old. All Euro II and III buses have been retrofitted with Diesel Particulate Filters where possible to reduce particulate emission. The government and the franchised bus companies plan to retrofit Selective Catalytic Reduction devices on these buses to cut nitrogen oxides emissions in the coming years. There are also plans to start trials on the use of hybrid and electric buses in Hong Kong in 2014. The government is working with the franchised bus companies to deploy cleaner buses along busy urban corridors in Central, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok. In 2013, about 1,100 daily bus trips were eliminated from the busy traffic corridors through service cancellation, frequency reduction, route truncation and

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