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The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) is inviting members of the public to visit the latest round of outdoor roving exhibitions on the Motor Vehicle Idling (Fixed Penalty) Ordinance, the first of which is now being staged at Chai Wan Youth Square until Sunday (September 16).
Details of the exhibitions being staged this month are as follows:
Date Venue Time
---- ----- ----
Today to Chai Wan Noon to 8pm (today
September 16 Youth Square to September 15);
10am to 6pm
(September 16)
September 20 Tsim Sha Tsui Noon to 8pm
to 23 Urban Council
Centenary Garden
September 27 Tsuen Wan Park Noon to 8pm
to 30 (September 27 and 28);
9am to 5pm
(September 29 and 30)
Being held as part of publicity efforts across Hong Kong since this May, the exhibitions aim to enhance public understanding of the idling engine ban and promote the green driving habit among drivers. The prohibition helps reduce the environmental nuisance caused by stationary vehicles with running engines and improve roadside air quality.
A spokesman for the EPD said today (September 13), "Starting this summer, we have been strengthening the publicity and enforcement activities in different districts to urge drivers to comply with the idling engine ban. Traffic wardens will take enforcement action against drivers contravening the law during their patrol duty, whereas the EPD will be responsible for co-ordinating publicity cum enforcement operations at various black spots where idling engines are common."
As at early September this year, the EPD has conducted some 310 publicity cum enforcement operations. Meanwhile, law enforcement staff, including Environmental Protection Inspectors and Traffic Wardens, have so far timed some 625 vehicles with idling engines. Penalty Notices have been issued as a result to two drivers who failed to switch off their engines within three minutes.
"We will carry on our efforts to remind drivers to switch off the idling engines of stationary vehicles by distributing leaflets on the streets, staging outdoor roving exhibitions and mounting publicity through various platforms," the spokesman said.
The Ordinance, which came into effect on December 15, 2011, prohibits drivers from idling a vehicle engine for more than three minutes in any 60-minute period. Law enforcement staff will issue a Penalty Notice to drivers contravening the law, and a fine of $320 will be imposed. This law is in force all year round on all roads including private roads and car parks.
For more details of the Ordinance, please visit the EPD's website
(www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/prob_solutions/idling_prohibition.html), call the enquiry hotline 2838 3111 or email idlingenq@epd.gov.hk.
Ends/Thursday, September 13, 2012
Issued at HKT 16:22
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