I refer to the article headlined, 'Hail a good taxi service', by Professor Ho Lok-sang (South China Morning Post, October 3) and the letter headlined, 'Wheelchair surcharge would be discrimination', by Dr T H Tse, Vice-Chairman of the Rehabilitation Alliance, Hong Kong (Post, October 18).
I share Dr Tse's views and strongly disagree with Professor Ho.
Apart from discrimination, I think the proposal on surcharging a passenger with a wheelchair would be against the existing legislation of the Hong Kong Government.
I refer to Section 41 of the Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) Regulations, Chapter 374 Subsidiary Legislation of the Laws of Hong Kong: '1) No goods other than personal hand baggage shall be carried on a public bus, public light bus or taxi, except, in the case of a public bus or public light bus, goods carried for hire or reward in accordance with a goods permit issued under the Road Traffic (Registration and Licensing of Vehicles) Regulations (Chapter 374 Subsidiary Legislation).
'2) No personal hand baggage which is permitted under subregulation (1) shall include any goods which '(a) are of a dangerous or offensive nature; or '(b) are not securely wrapped.
'3) Without prejudice to the generality of subregulation (1), in this regulation - 'personal hand baggage' includes wheelchairs, crutches or any other things used as an aid to or means of mobility, carried by any passenger.' Unless this section of the Subsidiary Legislation is amended in favour of Professor Ho's proposal, I would agree with Dr Tse that we should allow wheelchair users to freely use public transport facilities without surcharging them as a gesture to demonstrate our kindness, love and respect for them for their contributions to our society.