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9.11.8 It is concluded that area pricing has the greatest potential for controlling trafficgrowth successfully and to the greatest benefit of the community. Some problemsrequire resolving, but would be well worth re-investigating.9.12 Supplementary Transport Policies9.12.1 Based on the detailed assessments of policy options undertaken by the Study,selected options were defined as a set of supplementary policies common to ai! otherpackages. These concerned treatment of taxis, minibuses, parking controls andtunnel tolls.9.1 2.2 Taxi Quotas—There was a very rapid growth in the number of urban taxis in the firstpart of the 1 980s with the fleet increasing from about 9 000 in 1980 to 16 000 in1985. As a result of this rapid growth, quotas were imposed in 1984 on the numberof new taxi licences granted each year. Currently these are at the rate of 200 urbanlicences and 100 New Territories taxi licences, but they will be reviewed asnecessary.9.1 2.3 As discussed in Chapter 3 the recent growth in demand for taxis was undoubtedlyinfluenced by the growing affluence of people and by the decline in average urbantaxi fares measured in real terms relative to other public transport modes in the sameperiod. As a result of these relative fare changes, it is now of similar cost for somejourneys for a small group to travel by taxi as by bus but consuming on average atleast five times as much road space.9.12.4 A rational road space allocation policy requires that the differential between taxifares and bus fares be restored. To make an abrupt change in taxi fares would be verydisruptive and so a policy of gradual increases in taxi fares should be pursued. Overthe period of adjustment, it is sensible to maintain the current quotas on new taxilicences. Fare increases can then be judged to maintain a balance between thedemand for taxis and the limited supply imposed by quotas. The status of thisbalance can continue to be judged by monitoring surveys of taxi usage.9.12.5 If necessary, taxi fare rises can be induced by imposing taxation on taxis; this wouldavoid taxi owners and drivers profiting unduly from the fare increases of taxis. Themost suitable tax to adjust might be the tax on diesel duty since this would fit withrecommendations on other fuel taxes presented later and would also be likely toreduce unnecessary empty taxi trips.9.12.6 Minibus Quotas—The number of public minibuses has been kept constant for 13years at 4 350 but the carrying capacity has recently been increased from 14 to 16seats. Controls are judged to be necessary because of the preference of red PLBdrivers to operate on the main public transport corridors which can be moreefficiently operated by franchised buses. Much effort has gone into converting thered public light buses into green minibuses operating feeder services to areas of lowtraffic volume or difficult topography which are unsuited to larger vehicles. It isrecommended that this policy be continued and current limits on the number ofpublic minibuses be maintained.9.12.7 Parking Controls— Control of traffic levels by parking policy is difficult to achieve,partly because traffic volumes are not always related to the need to park in an area assome traffic is just passing through and also because much parking is private andtherefore uncharged. The most that can be hoped for is to restrict the supply of allparking places by planning controls and control the price of public parking places.Parking prices in public car parks are currently adjusted at regular intervals to obtainapproximately a 1 5% availability rate. If parking places are not under-supplied, thereis no point in charging either more or less than this rate.9.12.8 The main issue concerns the supply of new parking places. It is essential that this iscontrolled to the capacity of the road system so that use of private cars in congestedareas is not encouraged unduly. Estimates by CTS-2 indicate that an increase inparking places is required and could be tolerated by the expanded road system.However, it is strongly recommended that this is done only on the basis of area-wide191