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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, at a media session on the launch of a public engagement exercise on an electronic road pricing pilot scheme and raising fixed penalty charges for congestion-related offences at the ground floor lobby of the West Wing, Central Government Offices, today (December 11):
Reporter: Mr Cheung, how exactly will this consultation tackle the problems that have yet to be resolved? For example, like you said, some areas might be exempted from the e-toll system. How exactly will you consult the public on that? And also you said that the Government will adopt some of the TAC's suggestions, in particular about the elevated penalty for roadside violations. Can you elaborate on that as well?
Secretary for Transport and Housing: The Transport Advisory Committee, in its report to me last December, has made a set of recommendations. Among these recommendations, there are proposals to tighten up measures against offenders of traffic regulations, there are recommendations as to how to contain the growth of private cars, there are recommendations in relation to road pricing. This is the background to what we are proposing to do today, i.e. to launch a pilot scheme on electronic road pricing in the Central district and adjacent areas. We are engaging the community in a three-month public consultation process. We will listen to views from various stakeholders. As I said earlier, we have come to a stage where the question is not "whether", the question is "how". The Government is quite determined to implement a pilot scheme in the Central district and adjacent areas which are heavily congested, particularly during peak hours. But we know that there are different ways to implement such a road pricing scheme. In our document, we have set out the arrangements in other cities like Singapore, like London, as to how they implement their scheme, because by and large they have been quite successful through these schemes to contain traffic in congested areas.
In terms of road charges, the level of charges, the period for imposing charges, the exact area, the mechanism for road pricing or whether there should be some exemptions in particular circumstances, I'm sure there will be lot of views expressed by the community. What we are hoping to do is to listen to these views within these three months. Based on those views, the Government will conduct more detailed feasibility studies. Then we will come up with concrete proposals as to the way forward. We hope the community can debate the issue thoroughly. We sense that there is quite extensive support within the community to do something quickly about road traffic congestion in Hong Kong.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, December 11, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:37
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