Macau (MNA) – Sulu Sou Ka Hou, a suspended legislator, said on Tuesday that the New Macau Association (NMA) strongly criticises some aspects of the proposed changes to the road traffic law by the Transport Bureau (DSAT0 but that the public consultation should have gone ahead.
The proposed public consultation was slated for the end of June but has been withdrawn because of people voicing discontent with certain policies, in particular, an increase in parking fines from MOP300 to MOP600.
A protest organised by grassroots leaders has been planned for June 16, originally against the proposed increase in traffic fines, but in view of recent events few details will be changed.
Speaking at a press conference today, Mr. Sou said he believes that withdrawing the entire public consultation due to citizens’ ire is short-sighted.
“Most of the suggestions that are under public consultation should go ahead, as many revisions are valid, like the drink driving law [a proposal to double the punishment for drunk drivers.] However, I feel that DSAT is not being responsible because it cancelled the whole public consultation,” he stated.
To that end, the Association has proposed five changes that would be beneficial to current road traffic laws.
It first proposes that the government should use big data to calculate the population of drivers as well as regulate supply of parking lots throughout Macau. In addition, it suggests that the government should review some regulations such as 42/89/M, a regulation which concerns the parking spaces allocated for home and office buildings.
The MSAR Government has promised to revise this law in order to increase the percentage of parking spaces, but action has yet to be taken.
Older areas like the north of Macau would benefit from the construction of more parking spaces, NMA has also suggested today, adding that monthly parking passes should be cancelled – a promise made by the government three years ago.
The legislator also said that there needs to be a co-ordinating department to deal with the vehicles owned by separate government departments.
At this time, Macau’s various departments all manage official government vehicles separately.
