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9.7.4 There are clearly many combinations of policy options which could be effective incontrolling the growth in transport demand. To present a comprehensible range ofoptions, they have been grouped together into alternative policy packages asfollows:(1) Package 1—Car Ownership Taxes(2) Package 2—Fuel Tax(3) Package 3—Goods Vehicle Controls(4) Package 4—Area Pricing(5) A set of supplementary policies covering vehicle quotas, parking controls andtunnel tolls to be combined with all other packagesApproach to the Evaluation of Policy Packages9.7.5 A detailed traffic and economic assessment of each alternative policy package wasmade using the full computer transport model. The results are summarised forpresentation in this report displaying three main aspects:(1) Impact on traffic volumes(2) Impact on traffic speed(3) Economic benefits associated with the policyOther considerations such as effectiveness, ease of administration, flexibility andselectivity are also accounted for in the evaluation.9.7.6 Traffic Volumes—The objective of traffic management policies is to influencethe demand for transport to make the best use of the road system and prevent itfrom becoming congested. The impacts will vary by location and by time ofday, depending on the characteristics of the particular policy. Hence traffic volumesare displayed in this chapter as average hourly flows by three main traffic areas,Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, and by two time periods,the morning peak and the daytime off-peak. All volumes refer to an average weekdayin 1996 expressed in terms of kilometres by equivalent passenger car units(PCU).9.7.7 Traffic Speeds—The clearest measure of traffic congestion is the average speed oftraffic. This is determined by traffic volumes and road system capacity. Averagetraffic speeds are displayed for each of the three areas and for each time period aslisted above.9.7.8 Economic Benefits—Economic benefits measure the value of the policy package tothe community with four main components:(1) Operating cost savings, which represent the reductions in the cost of vehicleoperations of private and non-fixed route public transport vehicles (cars, taxis,goods vehicles and special purpose buses) brought about by easier trafficoperating conditions.(2) Passenger time savings, which represent the time savings to passengers inthe above vehicles including drivers of passenger cars through higher trafficspeeds.(3) Public transport savings, which represent the savings in fixed route publictransport operating costs including the passenger time savings through highertraffic speeds.(4) Generated traffic benefits, which are normally negative and represent theeconomic losses experienced by traffic which is eliminated as a result of thetraffic control policy. Overall, these losses are off-set by savings to other trafficspecified in (1)-(3) above.179