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Policy Statement & Submission

2008/03/31

A Proposal to Ban Idling Vehicles with Running Engine

Ms Anissa Wong, JP
Permanent Secretary for the Environment
Environmental Bureau
46/F, Revenue Tower
5 Gloucester Road, Wanchai
Hong Kong

Dear Anissa,

The Chamber supports legislation to require motorists to switch off the engines of their vehicles while waiting, as proposed in the consultation paper entitled “A Proposal to Ban Idling Vehicles with Running Engines”. Although such a law would only produce a very small effect in terms of reducing overall pollution, given the highly compact nature of our city and the deteriorating ambient air quality, such legislation will help make our city more liveable.

With regard to the specific implementation issues outlined in the consultation paper, the Chamber has the following views.

Penalty: The fine for non-complying motorists should be akin to that of illegal parking.

Coverage: As the consultation paper suggests, the ban should be across the board except for disciplinary or emergency service vehicles.

Exemption: Besides disciplinary or emergency service vehicles, to provide flexibility for vehicles which need to keep their engines running for operational reasons, we would support one more exemption for licensed public vehicles above certain ambient temperature (e.g. 28 degrees Celcius, or when the Observatory issues a Very Hot Weather Warning) and within certain time limit (e.g. 5 minutes).

Enforcement: It is understandable that the ban on idling engines cannot be enforced completely, just as the legislation on illegal parking and wearing of seat belts. To make the legislation more effective, there should be an explicit administrative commitment to strictly enforce it when the Air Pollution Index is above 100.

I hope you will find the above views useful.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely

Alex Fong
CEO

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