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Park and Hide9.6.4 This policy promotes the construction of car parks at railway stations in order toinduce commuters to restrict the use of cars to the uncongested parts of theTerritory, completing the journey to the urban centres by train. This policy wasrecommended by the 1981 Working Group on Parking Policy but has had limitedimpact. Most commuting journeys in Hong Kong are too short to make suchdual-mode journeys attractive. However, it is recommended that this option bereviewed in the light of changing circumstances.Vehicle Sharing9.6.5 Cars receive a low transport efficiency rating because of low occupancy; a vehiclewhich takes up the road space equivalent to one third of a bus is often carrying onlyone person compared with at least 30, and up to 160 on a bus. Filling cars withpassengers still leaves them at the bottom of the carrying efficiency list but doesimprove the situation. For this reason, the Singapore Area Licence scheme permitscars with four or more passengers to enter the controlled area without a speciallicence. Similarly, it is common practice in the USA and Australia to allow highoccupancy vehicles (HOVs) to use designated bus lanes on freeways.9.6.7 A common practice in South America, also followed in Washington DC, is topromote sharing of taxis by allowing drivers to pick up additional passengers alongthe route. While this leads to higher occupancy of taxis, which could be regarded asmore efficient for the road space used, taxis as a result tend to keep to the maincorridors which are already served by other higher capacity public transport modes.The main impact of this practice is probably in cost sharing, permitting lower taxifares for each individual user. Shared taxis are probably not useful for Hong Kong asPLBs already perform the shared-transport role relatively more efficiently, and taxifare increases rather than reductions are likely to be the issue. Hence a policy of taxisharing is not recommended.9.7 Selection and Evaluation of Policy Options for the Management ofTransport DemandThe main-focus of policies for managing, the growth of transpprtdemand must be inprivate cars and goods vehicles,, which between them comprise, .nearly 90% of the^existing vehicle "fleet "Pressures for increased car ownership and usage are intense,but limitations on road space simply do not permit the private car to assume theprominent role that it does in other less densely developed countries of similaraffluence. Similarly, limitations on road space also mean that the recent rapid growthin the goods vehicle fleet cannot be allowed to continue unchecked. Policies arealso required to ensure that other vehicle classes find an appropriate level relative tothe availability of road space, with the highest priority being given to buses.9.7.2 The previous sections discuss a range of policy options available for managing thegrowth of transport demand. Options identified as worth considering further are asfollows:1. Taxi controls2. Minibus quotas3. Parking controls4. Tunnel tolls5. Car and goods vehicle ownership taxes6. Fuel tax7. Area pricing9.7.3 These policies are evaluated in more detail in the remainder of this chapter.178