Legco panels discussed reducing or reorganizing bus
Clear the Air, Edited by Ryan Chan
22nd Jan, 2010
Bus is one of the main sources of air pollution in Hong Kong. According to the document of Legislative Council, “on a territorial basis, franchised buses accounted for about 6% of respirable suspended particulates and 11% of the nitrogen oxides of road transport emission in Hong Kong in 2008. At busy traffic corridors, they could account for up to 40% of the total vehicular emissions.” Therefore reducing or reorganizing bus trips is an effective way to mitigate the roadside air pollution and hence the health risk to the people. That’s why Panel on Transport and Panel on Environmental Affairs met together to discuss about the issue.
In this meeting, many Legislative members made suggestions to the issue. They knew that reorganizing bus trips can help to reduce air pollution in Hong Kong. For example, Mr. Wong Kwok-hing mentioned that the citizens are willing to interchange between different bus trips as they want to improve air quality in Hong Kong. Mr. Kam Nai-wai had another opinion; he thought that reorganizing bus trips per se cannot solve the problem. In order to improve the air quality in Hong Kong the government needs to phrase out the use of per-euro buses promptly, and introduce environmental friendly vehicles. Some of the members stated that the Government did not provide enough information for the citizens to judge the effect of the policies. If there are research and data about different policies, the citizens can distinguish which policies is better for improving air quality.
After discussed for an hour, Ms. Audrey EU Yuet-mee concluded the meeting with two suggestions:
- l Require Ms. Carolina YIP, Deputy Commissioner / Transport Services & Management, Transport Department to draft a report about the effect of switching to updated Euro buses in Hong Kong to be a reference to the citizens.
- l Require Transport Department to draft a list of bus trips that can be reorganized or reduced. The list is useful for the District Council to discuss the issue. At the same time, the impact on the bus drivers brought by the reorganization of bus trips needs to be calculated, and being reported by the Transportation Department.
The citizens are not familiar with the effect of the policies about reducing or reorganizing bus trips. If government can do a research about that, the data collected can be a reference for the citizens. If they know that the policies are good to their health, we are sure that they will support the policies, just like what Mr. Wong Kwok-hing had mentioned in the meeting.
立法會交通事務委員會及環境事務委員會聯席會議
巴士是香港空氣污染的其中一個源頭，從立法會的文件，我們可以看到：「專營巴士在2008年排放的可吸入懸浮粒子和氮氧化物分別佔該年全港整體車輛的有關總排放量約6%和11%。但在繁忙的交通幹道，專營巴士的廢氣排放量佔總車輛廢氣排放量可高達40%。」因此，重整或減少巴士班次是一種有效的辦法來減少路邊空氣污染，從而降低對市民大眾所構成的健康風險。立法會交通事務委員會及環境事務委員會就為這個議題作出討論。
在2010/1/22的聯席會議中，不少議員都提出建議，希望可以儘快重整巴士路線。而其中有不少議員都明白到重整巴士路線對空氣質素有一定的幫助，如黃國興議員指出，有些市民為了改善空氣質素是不介意轉車的，所以政府就更應該要做。而甘乃威議員就提出單是重整是不足夠的，必須儘快把香港的巴士轉換成環保的型號，才能解決問題。會中亦提到政府並沒有給予足夠的數據，讓市民難以明白重整巴士路線及更換歐盟新型號環保巴士對空氣污染的改善程度，亦難以分辨那一個措施可以更有效改善空氣質素。
綜合了會議的結果，環境事務委員會主席余若薇議員建議政府作出二個行動：
第一，請運輸及房屋局首席助理秘書長(運輸)廖李可期女士為提早更換新型歐盟巴士對香港環境保護和改善空氣積素的效益作出報告，並提供足夠數據讓市民大眾可以參閱。
第二，請運輸及房屋局整理可以改動、重組的巴士路線的列表，用以交給區議會討論重整路線的可能性。同時亦希望有關方面把重組路線對職業司機的影響亦作出估量，寫成報告。
由於市民對改善空氣質素的政策效果認識不深，如果政府可以研究它們的效益，並提供資訊予市民參考，就可以令這些政策獲得更多市民的支持。重整巴士路線就是其中之一，就如黃國興議員所指，市民知道此舉可以改善空氣質素，他們是不介意改變他們的乘車習慣的。