Increased Parking Fines get Honks of Protest

There needs to be increased enforcement of parking penalties and higher fines

Talk about backtracking.

Hong Kong has a lot of traffic jams during rush hour, and it's mostly due to private cars and vans waiting for their masters and mistresses to whisk them off to their next appointment. These vehicles are usually idling and clogging up roads where traffic should be moving.

And so the government submitted a proposal to raise fixed penalties for illegal parking and related offenses from HK$320 and HK$450 to HK$480 and HK$680 respectively.

But in a bizarre turn of events, lawmakers of all political stripes as well as those from the transport sector were so opposed to this that the government has backed down and lowered the fines to HK$400 and HK$560 instead.

Opposition claims there aren't enough parking spots

Under the revised proposal, making U-turn causing an obstruction and an unauthorized stopping at a bus stop, public light bus stand or taxi stand will be slapped with a fixed penalty of HK$400, while offenses like loading or unloading goods or picking up passengers in a restricted zone will face a fixed penalty of HK$560.

The proposal will be voted on at the end of June and are expected to take effect June 1 next year.

The revision came after feedback from the transport subcommittee and individuals claimed that an increase of 50 percent for illegal parking was "hefty" and that a phased approach should be considered.

In addition, lawmakers from across the political spectrum said there was an acute shortage of parking spaces for commercial vehicles, arguing the city should tackle this problem before penalizing those in the transport sector.

But isn't that the point of raising penalties to prevent illegal parking and other infractions? It's not about making the fines affordable. And besides, in the case of private car owners, if they can buy a car, they can surely afford a several hundred dollar fine.

Vehicles, like this one, clog up streets waiting for owners

As the government also notes, even when there are vacant parking spaces, motorists still choose to park their vehicles illegally "for their own convenience, or to save parking fees".

The number of penalty tickets issued last year was 1.6 million, almost double 820,000 in 2011. The number of licensed vehicles in Hong Kong is 710,000 as of February.

Meanwhile Liberal Party lawmaker Frankie Yick Chi-ming, who represents the transport sector, says he opposes the proposed rises in illegal parking fines, saying the government should be stepping up enforcement at black spots by towing away illegally parked cars.

"The government is barking up the wrong tree. Increasing fines can't deter illegal parking when the shortage of parking spaces is not resolved. Only strict enforcement such as towing away illegally parked cars can be a deterrent."

We agree with the government -- it's about selfishness and thinking they can get away with parking illegally in the hopes they won't get caught.

There definitely needs to be more enforcement and higher fines, but halving the proposed rise in fines is such a cop-out. Why bend to such pressure?

Don't we want more efficient traffic in the city?

Fact of the Day: Increased Parking Tickets

Some people block the roads just so that they can get into their own vehicles

There have been many complaints about how the police don't do enough to ticket people who are illegally parked, resulting in lots of traffic congestion.

Just look at Chater Road in front of Prince's Building, or Lee Gardens in Causeway Bay during rush hour, where chauffeurs are picking up their masters and mistresses.

But now the police claim they have stepped up their work and are now issuing a parking ticket every 26 seconds.

That means they are issuing 3,379 a day, which projects to about 1.23 million this year.

This is a 15 percent increase compared to last year, where 2,930 tickets were issued daily on average, or 1.06 million tickets, while compared to 2013 it is a 21 percent increase, as 2,795 tickets were written per day or 1.02 million tickets in total.

In the first seven months of this year the police have issued 723,129 fixed penalty tickets.

Not only that, but the police are also supporting a suggested increase in the fixed penalty for illegal parking from HK$320 ($42) to HK$448. While it doesn't seem much, it is a 40 percent jump from 1994 levels when the penalty was last increased.

"This has to do with deterrence. If you get a ticket, and you think 'it is not a lot of money, I can afford it', then it is not achieving anything. That is wasting the time of the traffic wardens," says Mark Steeple, a superintendent from the transport branch.

"We want the traffic wardens to issue a ticket so that person can learn a lesson. I think it can increase, but it is not for us to say how much," he said.

While lawmaker Gary Fan Kwok-wai of the NeoDemocrats and a member of the Legislative Council's transport panel said more carparks were needed, Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker Tang Ka-piu, vice-chairman of the panel, said if the city's public transport system was better, fewer people would use their own cars.

Excuse me? If the public transport system was better?

Tang gives the impression of not using the public transport system at all. What more needs to be improved? The MTR is already one of the best in the world as it's clean, fast and efficient, buses are not bad and quite frequent, and there are also minibuses and taxis, and trams for those who are not in a hurry.

People buy private cars because they don't want to sit with the rest of us riff raff who can't afford it. That is their prerogative, but they must also pay the consequences if they park illegally. It's that simple really.

We say bring on the increase -- double it, or triple it even -- because these people who purchase vehicles can definitely afford even an HK$800 or HK$1,200 fine. Why not?

Then maybe we'll finally get rid of congestion on the roads...