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Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (June 28):
Question:
In reply to my question on 15 October 2003, the Administration advised that it had guidelines and measures to ensure that the location of bus stops would not affect road safety, and it would closely monitor the operation of bus stops and initiate appropriate improvement measures where necessary. However, I have still received complaints that many bus stops are located less than 10 metres away from car-park accesses, causing a number of traffic accidents. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the required distance between a bus stop and a car-park access according to the standard adopted by the Administration;
(b) whether there are bus stops the distance of which from car-park accesses does not comply with the above standard; if so, of the number of such bus stops and the number of years they have been in use;
(c) of the number of traffic accidents in the past three years which were attributable to a bus stop being located less than 10 metres away from a car-park access; and
(d) whether it will consider adopting measures to improve the above situation, such as relocating bus stops further away from car-park accesses; if so, of the details of the measures; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
According to Transport Department's "Transport Planning and Design Manual", the distance between a bus stop and the ingress/egress of a car park should be 30 metres.
We do not have statistics on the bus stops which are located less than 30 metres from the ingress/egress of car parks, or related accident figures. In fact, apart from the distance from the ingress/egress of car parks, Transport Department will also take into consideration other factors, including the sightline of pedestrians and motorists, traffic conditions, passenger demand and site constraints etc., in designating bus stops. In all cases, road safety is the primary consideration.
Transport Department will continue to closely monitor the operation of bus stops and will relocate bus stops or implement mitigation measures when necessary. These measures include providing lay-bys, erecting appropriate traffic signs and road markings, adjusting the number of stops by reorganising the bus routes observing a particular bus stop, designating stopping restrictions, etc. to ensure that road safety will not be jeopardised.
Ends/Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:18
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