South China Morning Post
Jennifer Ngo

Ninety-two streets have been identified as black spots for vehicles with idling engines, with Kowloon City and Yau Tsim Mong the districts most affected, environment officials say.

Kowloon City was the district with the most black spots, with 15 streets, followed by Yau Tsim Mong with 12.

A street was identified as a black spot if it received more than one complaint of an idling engine within three months, a government spokesman said.

Wellington Street and Man Fai Street in Central and the Central ferry piers drew the most complaints, according to a list presented to the Legislative Council.

The Environment Bureau would “request traffic wardens to pay more attention to [the] black spots during normal patrol duty”, bureau chief Wong Kam-sing told legislators yesterday.

The bureau would also conduct publicity and enforcement activities at those places, he said.

In the 10 months since the law took effect, only three drivers have been charged a fixed penalty of HK$320 for keeping the engines of their parked vehicles running for more than the allowed limit of three minutes.

The ban was also not enforced for 40 days during the recent summer because of overly hot or wet weather, in accordance with weather-related exemptions.

Environment Bureau chief Wong Kam-sing said traffic wardens and environmental protection inspectors had timed 806 vehicles across the city and held 340 publicity activities to raise awareness of the issue. He said more drivers now switched off their engines while their vehicle were parked, but admitted in some cases this was because law enforcement officers were timing them.

To read the full article, click here.

Coverage from The Standard can be found here.