Improving air quality - TD's ongoing commitment

Environmental protection and improvement is a continuous battle and the Transport Department, being a transport planner and regulator, will continue to pull its efforts in improving the air quality to make Hong Kong a world class city and people's quality of life, the Commissioner for Transport, Mr Robert Footman, said.

Addressing the audience at a luncheon hosted by Century 21 Club this (September 29) afternoon, Mr Footman highlighted that effective transport planning, public transport management, the use of alternative environmental-friendly vehicles/fuel, as well as traffic management measures contributed to better air quality.

For example, the Third Comprehensive Transport Study (CTS-3), which has mapped out the future broad transport development framework, has recommended the following to address the issue on air quality:

	an integrated land-use, transport and environmental planning approach should be adopted in transport planning;
	railways should be used as the backbone of the passenger transportation network;
	a series of environmental measures that would lead to an improvement of the air quality should be implemented.

Apart from comprehensive transport planning, the department has taken various measures, like the deployment of cleaner buses and the more efficient use of bus fleet, to provide a better environment.

Three of the eight planned bus-bus interchanges were implemented, and the remaining schemes are planned for implementation in the coming months.

Mr Footman said: "Such schemes are developed to encourage more efficient use of existing bus resources and reduce the need to increase the number of buses.

"Several measures in respect of alternative environmental-friendly vehicles and fuel are also in various stages of implementation/development," he added.

These measures include trolley bus study, liquefied petroleum gas taxis, trial of alternative fuel light buses, as well as the use of ultra-low sulphur diesel.

On traffic management measures, the department has already started the phased implementation of pedestrian schemes in selected areas in Causeway Bay, Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui.

"These pedestrian schemes," Mr Footman said, "are intended to improve the overall pedestrian environment through beautification of the area and discourage access of non-essential vehicles to improve air quality.

"The schemes also aim to minimise the conflict between pedestrians and vehicular traffic and hence reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents and pedestrian casualties."

In addition to the above, ongoing efforts to design and implement traffic management measures are made to relieve and minimise traffic congestion.

He said: "With a smoother flow of traffic and less congestion, the amount of pollutants emitted would be minimised thus contributing to an improvement in air quality.

"Though marked air quality improvement would not be achieved overnight, and big problems remain to be addressed, we are working earnestly at various fronts and are endeavouring to achieve the set targets," he added.

End/Friday, September 29, 2000