ENG-2020 — Page 257

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Transport

mandatory basis. About 93 per cent of course participants did not incur new driving-offence points within six months of completing the course.

Pre-service Courses and Driving Licence Requirements for Commercial Vehicles

From 1 October, the existing requirement that applicants for a full PLB driving licence must first complete a pre-service course, in addition to passing the relevant driving test, has been extended to applicants for a full driving licence for a taxi or a public bus. Applicants must complete the relevant pre-service course no more than one year before they apply for a licence.

At the same time, the period for which an applicant for a commercial vehicle driving licence must have held a full private car or light goods vehicle driving licence has been shortened.

Vehicle Examination

Vehicles are examined routinely to ensure they are safe, roadworthy and properly maintained. Commercial vehicles are checked annually at the four government vehicle examination centres. In 2020, these centres conducted 225,000 vehicle examinations. In addition, 2,824 spot checks were carried out on franchised buses to determine their safety, roadworthiness and service standards.

Private cars over six years old and light goods vehicles not exceeding 1.9 tonnes are inspected annually at 40 designated car testing centres run by the private sector. These centres perform 372,000 vehicle examinations a year.

All imported vehicles must be examined to ensure the statutory requirements are met before they can be registered and licensed. During the year, 1,105 vehicle types were approved.

Intelligent Transport Systems

An integral part of the government's transport policy is the development of Intelligent Transport Systems for dissemination of traffic information to the public and traffic and incident. management. Real-time traffic and transport information and relevant data are disseminated to the public through the Transport Department's HKeMobility mobile application and website, as well as through the government's information portal, data.gov.hk.

The department publishes an annual open data plan on its website which lists the datasets available for download from the portal. As at 31 December, the data included traffic snapshots captured by fixed closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and traffic detectors at about 480 strategic locations, estimated journey times of various cross-harbour routes and major routes, traffic speed maps and special traffic news.

Visitors and others without mobile data services may make use of 18 Traveller Information Kiosks installed at 15 locations, including the arrival hall of the airport's Terminal 1, Peak Galleria and public transport interchanges.

A computerised Area Traffic Control system, which responds to changing road conditions, enables a series of green signals to light up for vehicles passing through the signalised junctions, thus achieving smooth traffic flow by minimising stops and delays. By 31 December,

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