Fixed penalty increase backed by Hong Kong police as it emerges a parking ticket is issued every 26 seconds

Police have backed calls from transport advisers to increase the HK$320 fixed penalty for illegal parking, as the average number of tickets issued daily has soared 15 per cent from last year and 21 per cent from the year before.

"Looking at road safety, pedestrian and vehicle traffic accidents resulting from illegal parking is a big concern," said Mark Steeple, a superintendent from the police transport branch, as figures released yesterday showed the force had already issued 723,129 fixed penalty tickets in the first seven months of this year.

That works out to an average of 3,379 a day - or one every 26 seconds.

Last year, 2,930 tickets were issued every day on average, or 1.06 million tickets in the whole year. In the year before, 1.02 million tickets were issued, for an average of 2,795 tickets a day.

Central, Wan Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok were among the black spots where "lots of tickets" were issued, Steeple said.

Steeple said the increase in the number of vehicles in the city and a healthy economy that was seeing more people go out to shop or eat in restaurants were two reasons for the surge.

Earlier this year, the Transport Advisory Committee listed 12 measures in a report to the government on how road congestion could be eased.