Registration tax rise to curb private car growth

The proposal to increase motor vehicle first registration tax for private cars outlined in the 2011-12 Budget aims to curb the growth of private cars to relieve traffic congestion, the Transport & Housing Bureau says.

The bureau today said private cars are a less efficient mode of transport. Of the total trips made by Hong Kong people, about 30% of the people use rail while about 60% use other land public transport mode including buses, public light buses and taxis. About 10% use private cars.

Public transport vehicles take up only about 30% of the road space, while private cars account for as much as 40%. Private cars have reduced the efficiency of our road space usage and affected other road users as well, in particular public transport passengers, the bureau said.

Road traffic flow

The Government must take decisive measures to curb the growth of private cars before traffic congestion deteriorates to the point which could hardly be relieved even if more stringent measures are put in place.

Currently private cars accounted for about 70% of the total vehicle fleet size. The rise in the number of private cars has slowed the traffic flow of our roads and affected the efficiency of all vehicles using the roads.

Although the Government has been implementing road-improvement measures to alleviate traffic congestion, a drop in average car journey speed at the major travel corridors, including non-harbour crossings access roads and roads in the New Territories, was recorded last year.

Multi-pronged approach

When mapping out the transport policies, the Government must approach the issues from a macro-point of view instead of focusing on the regional traffic conditions. While it is proactively dealing with the undesirable traffic distribution at road harbour crossings, the issue cannot be confused with the deterioration of the overall traffic condition in Hong Kong. The current reduction in car journey speed is a city-wide traffic problem.

Apart from the proposal to increase the first registration tax to contain private car growth, the Government has considered other measures to ease traffic congestion.

It has adopted a multi-pronged approach to improve traffic conditions including integrating transport and land-use planning to reduce the public's reliance on road-based transport; actively pursuing the public transport system policy, with railway as the backbone; and implementing appropriate traffic-management schemes.

If the rapid rise in the number of private cars is unchecked, it will be futile even if more traffic-improvement measures are introduced. This will also be unfair to other land public transport users, the bureau stressed.