Transportation | 248,680 licensed motor vehicles by end of June

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) yesterday released the transportation statistics for the first half of 2016. The statement documented increased motor vehicle registration and airplane transportation in Macau, while at the same time a drop in the number passenger ferries.
New registration of motor vehicles decreased by 29.8 percent year-on-­year to 939 in June 2016, according to the DSEC.
The total number of licensed motor vehicles reached 248,680 at the end of June, up by 1.9 percent year-on-year. Motorcycles and light private cars accounted for 52.1 percent and 41 percent respectively of the total.
In the first half of 2016, new registration of motor vehicles dropped by 31.6 percent year-on-year to 6,869, which saw motorcycles (3,809) and light private cars (2,186) falling by 25.9 percent and 48.4 percent respectively.
Cross-border vehicle traffic totaled 427,258 trips in June 2016, an increase of 2.1 percent year-on-year. In the first half of 2016, cross-border vehicle traffic rose slightly by 0.7 percent year-­on-year to 2,549,159 trips. Of this figure, vehicle traffic through the Border Gate accounted for 77.2 percent.
There were 1,269 traffic accident cases in the month of June, with number of injuries totaling to 364. Meanwhile, in the first half year of 2016, the number of traffic accidents decreased by 2.5 percent year-on-year to 7,425 cases, resulting in 2,276 casualties and four deaths.
Passenger ferry movements connecting Macau to both Hong Kong and mainland China decreased by 6.4 percent year-on-year to 10,966 trips in June, while movements in the first half of the year (68,080 trips) dropped by 6.3 percent.
Commercial flight movements at the Macau International Airport totaled 4,422 in June, an increase of 7.1 percent year-on-year. In the first half-year of 2016, commercial flight movements increased by 6.8 percent year-on-year to 27,202 trips; flight movements to and from mainland China and Vietnam dropped by 2.9 percent and 3.1 percent, while movements to and from Japan, Thailand and Taiwan rose by 64.8 percent, 21.1 percent and 16.6 percent respectively.
Helicopter flights in the first half year (4,808 trips), decreased by 31.8 percent.  DB

Internet subscriptions up 10 percent

DSEC released a statement yesterday outlining the communications usage during June 2016. The statement noted a marked increase in the number of internet subscribers. At the end of the month, the number of fixed-line telephone subscribers decreased by 6.9 percent year-on-year to 140,173, while the number of mobile telephone subscribers rose slightly by 0.5 percent to 1,874,950. Of this number, stored-value GSM card subscribers (1,191,099) accounted for 63.5 percent.  The number of internet subscribers increased by 10.7 percent year-on-year to 350,879. In the first half of 2016, the cumulative duration of internet usage rose by 12.4 percent year-on-year to 582 million hours.