In 2015, the Transport Department continued to take active measures to ameliorate air quality. These measures include phasing in LPG and electric light buses, controlling the growth of the franchised bus fleet, enhancing bus operations in congested areas, introducing bus-bus and bus-rail interchange schemes, reducing vehicle emission, and implementing pedestrian schemes.
In early 2000 the Government carried out legislative amendments not to allow diesel vehicles registered after 1 August 2001 to be used as taxis in Hong Kong. The Government also provided a one-off grant to encourage taxi owners to replace their diesel taxis with LPG ones. Since 2013, electric / hybrid vehicles also started to be used as taxis in Hong Kong. As at end of 2015, there were 18,119 LPG and 13 electric / hybrid taxis among the registered taxis in Hong Kong, representing over 99.9% of the whole fleet.
The Government launched incentive programmes in 2002, 2007 and 2010 respectively to encourage existing light bus owners to replace their old diesel vehicles with LPG, electric light bus or new diesel light bus of the latest Euro emission standard. In March 2014, the Government launched another ex-gratia payment scheme to phase out pre-Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles including light buses. The eligible vehicle owners may apply for ex-gratia payment by the concerned deadlines. At end of 2015, there were 3,013 licensed LPG public light buses in Hong Kong.
To ensure efficient use of the existing franchised bus fleet, we are scrutinizing the companies' five-year forward planning programmes very carefully. The Administration continues to liaise with the bus companies to re-organise and rationalise bus services, especially those services operating along busy corridors with low utilisation, to reduce bus trips in busy corridors by route cancellation, amalgamation, truncation and frequency adjustment, with a view to reducing air pollution, noise nuisance, traffic congestion and fuel consumption.
The Department further pursued the reduction of bus trips in busy corridors in 2015. There were about 838 and 415 bus trips per day reduced along the busy corridors in Central and Causeway Bay respectively after a series of rationalisation exercise during the year. In addition, the number of reduced bus trips on Nathan Road was about 485 per day during the same period. For the period from 2002 to 2015, the cumulative reduction of the number of bus trips in the above busy corridors was about 9,193.
To avoid the introduction of excessive direct bus services, help relieve congestion and minimize the environmental impact on busy corridors, the Administration encourages the bus companies to introduce more bus-bus and bus-rail interchange schemes and to offer the interchanging passengers with fare discounts. By the end of 2015, there were a total of 360 bus-bus interchange schemes.
As at end of 2015, all the franchised buses were running on engines in compliance with the Euro emission standards. With effect from 1 June 2012, all newly registered franchised buses have to meet the Euro V emission standards.
The franchised bus companies are gradually replacing the retired buses by new buses of the latest Euro emission standards. All pre-Euro and Euro I buses have been phased out. The franchised bus companies have completed retrofitting emission reduction devices (ERDs) on their buses of Euro II and Euro III emission standards where technically feasible by the end of 2010. The Government is also fully subsidizing the franchised bus companies to retrofit eligible Euro II and III buses with selective catalytic reduction devices (SCRs) which can upgrade the emission performance of these buses comparable to that of Euro IV or above level. Since December 2007, all franchised buses have been using Euro V diesel with sulphur content of 0.001%.
The legislative amendment to tighten the in-use diesel vehicle emission standard from 60 Hartridge Smoke Units (HSU) to 50 HSU has been effective from 1 May 2008.
In order to improve the overall pedestrian environment, the Transport Department has implemented pedestrian schemes in Causeway Bay, Mong Kok, Tsim Sha Tsui, Central, Wan Chai, Sham Shui Po, Jordan, Stanley, Sheung Shui and Yuen Long. As at end of 2015, we have implemented 7 Full-time Pedestrian Schemes, some 30 Part-time Pedestrian Schemes and over 40 Traffic Calming Schemes. They include:
Theatre Lane, Chiu Lung Street, Findlay Road, Russell Street, Paterson Street, Jardine's Crescent and Nanking Street.
Lan Kwai Fong, D'Aguilar Street, Wo On Lane, Sai Yuen Lane, Tai Yuen Street, Chater Road, Ice House Street, Lockhart Road, East Point Road, Great George Street, Pak Sha Road, Lee Garden Road, Marble Road, Stanley Main Street, Stanley Market Road, Stanley New Street, Bowring Street, Temple Street, Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Nelson Street, Tung Choi Street, Soy Street, Apliu Street, Fuk Wa Street, Pei Ho Street, Kweilin Street, San Hong Street, San Kung Street and Yuen Long New Street.
Wyndham Street, Queen's Road Central, Elgin Street, Peel Street, Staunton Street, Jaffe Road, Johnston Road, Kai Chiu Road, Foo Ming Street, Lan Fong Road, Pak Sha Road, Yun Ping Road, Russell Street, Paterson Street, Great George Street, Lee Garden Road, Jardine’s Bazaar, Haiphong Road, Hankow Road, Canton Road, Peking Road, Lock Road, Ashley Road, Ichang Street, Minden Avenue, Nanking Street, Pilkem Street, Shanghai Street, Bowring Street, Saigon Street, Pak Hoi Street, Fa Yuen Street, Shantung Street, Fuk Wa Street, Pei Ho Street, Nam Cheong Street, Yu Chau Street, Fuk Wing Street and Kweilin Street.