The trend in motor vehicle registrations in Hong Kong since 1954 is shown in Figure 3. Private cars constitute the largest category of vehicles, followed by goods vehicles and motor-cycles. The smallest category—less than 2 per cent of the total—are public buses. This becomes quite significant when the percentage of bus travel is considered.
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| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">{{anchor|17}}In 1948 there was one motor vehicle for every 174 people in the Colony. By the end of 1966 this figure had changed to one vehicle for every 40 people. Although vehicle registrations increased at a lesser rate in the past two years, the trend continues consistently upward. While the present ratio of vehicles to population in Hong Kong does not approach the 2 to 8 people per vehicle already reached in the United States and many European countries, the limited land and road area creates problems in the movement and storage of even the motor vehicles now in use. Table 1, which was developed by comparing the number of vehicles with miles of roadway in other countries, shows that there are only two countries with more vehicles per mile of road than Hong Kong. The combination of a large number of vehicles per mile of road with rapidly increasing vehicle registration, very high urban densities and a shortage of developable land, must lead to extremely congested traffic conditions in the future unless action is taken.</span>
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">{{anchor|17}}In 1948 there was one motor vehicle for every 174 people in the Colony. By the end of 1966 this figure had changed to one vehicle for every 40 people. Although vehicle registrations increased at a lesser rate in the past two years, the trend continues consistently upward. While the present ratio of vehicles to population in Hong Kong does not approach the 2 to 8 people per vehicle already reached in the United States and many European countries, the limited land and road area creates problems in the movement and storage of even the motor vehicles now in use. Table 1, which was developed by comparing the number of vehicles with miles of roadway in other countries, shows that there are only two countries with more vehicles per mile of road than Hong Kong. The combination of a large number of vehicles per mile of road with rapidly increasing vehicle registration, very high urban densities and a shortage of developable land, must lead to extremely congested traffic conditions in the future unless action is taken.</span>
1964年，工務局在英國道路研究所人員的技術指導下成立交通狀況調查組（Passenger Transport Survey Unit，PTSU），其職權範圍包括進行調查以獲取有關當前乘客流動的事實信息，以作確定未來發展對這些人員流動模式的可能影響。1967年，該單位成為一個永久性組織，[易]名為交通運輸調查組（Traffic and Transport Survey Unit，TTSU），負責長期複檢交通和運輸的需求、翻新調查數據及預測未來的交通和運輸趨勢。
1965年初，香港政府意識到有必要對公共交通進行更詳細的研究，因而決定這項工作應該在獲得交通狀況調查組研究的基礎數據的同時開始。為此，香港政府於1965年7月與費爾文霍士顧問工程公司（Freeman, Fox, Wilbur Smith and Associates）達成協議，進行大眾運輸可行性研究。
