Untitled - HKU Libraries - The University of Hong Kong

1.1.8 it is not surprising that Hong Kong has a relatively low commercial vehicleownership; fleet size is determined by the quantity of transport, e.g. tonne-km, to beperformed and this is limited by the compact nature of Hong Kong. Car ownership,on the other hand, is generally less a function of transport need and has much to dowith status and expressions of wealth. The pressures for car ownership are strong inHong Kong but ownership levels have been suppressed by high taxes and annuallicence fees.1.1.9 The reasons for this are quite clear from the second of the smaller graphs. Despite therelatively low vehicle ownership, in relation to economic wealth, Hong Kong has thehighest density of vehicles per kilometre of road of any of the countries shown. Infact, Hong Kong has more commercial vehicles per kilometre of road than most othercountries have total vehicles per kilometre, including private cars. Until recently withthe gradual growth of the new towns, both residential and commercial developmentshave been concentrated round the Victoria Harbour. These have permitted thedevelopment of an efficient and profitable public transport system and muchreduced the need for a private mode of transport. Equally, a relatively small networkof roads could only be built in this confined area. This accounts for the low carownership and high density of vehicles per kilometre.1.1.10 The taxes on private motoring has been critically commented upon, but quite clearly,even with a massive road building programme, Hong Kong simply cannot permit carusage to rise to the levels enjoyed by other countries of similar wealth. It must bebluntly stated at the outset of this report that control of private cars by one means oranother must continue to be a central part of transport policy in Hong Kong.However, it is also necessary to consider controls on other vehicles, in particulargoods vehicles. The goods vehicle fleet has more than doubled in the last 1 0 yearsand the proportion of this traffic in the urban area has increased by about 72 percent,compared with 13 and 60 percents for private cars and taxis respectively over thesame period.1.1.11 Public Transport—Without the choice of private transport for the majority ofresidents of Hong Kong, it follows that public transport must be provided to thehighest standard possible. At a minimum, this emphasises the need for controls onvehicle growth, since over 50% of all public transport services are road-based andtherefore vulnerable to road congestion. It also means that Hong Kong must look toways of expanding the rail system to provide a standard of public transport servicescompatible with the growing expectations of the population. In this respect theconcentration of population, business and industry into restricted land areas andnarrow corridors has advantages by permitting financially self-supporting railoperations. This report examines the case for several new passenger rail lines.Recent Transport Developments in Hong Kong1.1.12 The last ten years have seen a huge expansion of the transport system of Hong Kong,as illustrated in Figure 1.2. The programme continues and projects currently inconstruction are discussed later in the report.1.1.13 Much of the effort has gone into trunk road construction to provide high capacity roadsthrough the existing urban areas and out to the new towns in the New Territories.Within the urban area, road widening schemes and flyovers have vastly improved thecapacity of the road system to accommodate the ever-growing volume of traffic.1.1.14 Of equal importance to the expansion of the Territory road network has been theconstruction of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and the modernisation of theKowioon-Canton Railway (KCR). The availability of high speed and frequent trainservices has transformed the travel patterns of the Territory. The first line of the MTRopened at the end of 1979; rail services now carry a quarter of all passenger journeysmade in Hong Kong. The most recent addition to the rail system was the Light RailTransit (LRT) railway opened in 1988 linking the new towns of Tuen Mun and YuenLong. The franchised buses have also expanded considerably in meeting thegrowing transport demand.13