Sustainable Transport
Living streets, Walkable city
2013

Integration pays off
• Economic benefits of a free flow of people,
goods and services and the integration of our
transport network with the mainland have
been well established
• The 2022 Foundation
www.2022foundation.com

Cross Border Traffic Capacity

New demand for roads
• The design capacity of border crossings will be 188,000
vehicles every day.
• The average daily cross border traffic has been steady
around 42,000 crossings for last five years.
• Trucks dropped from over 60% to under 50%, and
private cars increased from 28% to over 40%.
• Without expansion of the port or manufacturing, the
spare capacity of 146,000 crossings a day will be filled
with private cars, up from the current 17,000.
• Our private car fleet is only 433,202 in 2011.
• The majority of future crossings will be taken up by
mainland vehicles.

No Park’nRide, No ERP
• Government decided that mandatory Park-and-
Ride would discourage the use of the border
crossings, and decided that drivers could use
parking at rail stations voluntarily. (2009)
• No land has been reserved for Park-and-Ride
facilities at border crossings (16 February 2012,
Eva Cheng, Secretary for Transport)
• No progress has been made towards a territorial
road pricing system to incentivize visitors to keep
their vehicles away from congested districts.

Residents pay the price
• Building more highways and bypasses in and to Hong Kong
will only add more cars faster to the queues as we simply
can’t absorb more cars in our dense urban areas.
• Mainland private cars and coaches will join the queues of
vehicles trying to get into Mong Kong, the tip of Kowloon,
Hung Hom, Kowloon Bay, North Point, Causeway Bay,
Wanchai, Central, Sheung Wan, Repulse Bay and Stubbs
Road.
• Touring visitors may not mind being stuck in traffic while
sightseeing
• Hong Kong residents will pay the price spending more time
in traffic to get essential things done: doctor visits, helping
out family, being in time for exams, ..

Congested network
• Hong Kong has a short 2,000km road network with the
highest density of vehicles only after Monaco.
• Over 3 decades we carefully crafted a transport policy
with rail as the backbone to steer the city clear of the
grid lock it suffered in the 1970s.
• The number of vehicles has been stable in Hong Kong,
except for the private cars which have jumped by 20%
over the last five years.
• As a result traffic congestion is increasing and the
average journey speed has dropped to 24.9km in
Kowloon and 21.3km on Hong Kong Island.

Pedestrians will pay the price
• Forget pavement widening or fixing intermittent footpaths,
to cater for more vehicles road improvements will
deteriorate the walkability of Hong Kong.
• Hong Kong will see more street crossings removed, and
more guard railings, footbridges and subways to stop
pedestrians from impeding the flow of traffic
• All resulting in crowding of footpaths, mind numbing
tunnels, detours and level changes, and more roadside air
and noise pollution.
• Every day 80% of Hong Kong’s residents walk to transport,
work, school, and shopping, and that will become even less
convenient.

More cars? More space?
更多車? 更多行人路?

Walking has its problems already
• Precinct study 2001
• “.. narrow and overcrowded pavements,
barriers to movement, pedestrian/vehicular
conflicts, unsatisfactory crossing facilities,
traffic pollution, unattractive streetscape,
inadequate weather protection, poor
signage, and unfriendly to the elderly and
people with disabilities.” (Townland, 2001)

Oh yes, more footbridges
• The Road Safety Review (Transport, 2004)
• “comprehensive segregated pedestrian
networks”
• to combine complete safety ‘with maximum
convenience’.

Oh yes, more comfortable footbridges
• The Hong Kong Government’s strategy for
encouraging walking is by implementing
• ‘comfortable all-weather walking corridors
which obviate the need to walk on the road,
• improve pedestrian safety and minimize short
motorized trips’ to reduce congestion, air
pollution, noise and allow further increases in
building density. (Letter from STH, 2010)

How many?
• Hong Kong has more than 1 footbridge or
tunnel for every two kilometers of road
(excluding footbridges and subways maintained
by private developers and the MTRC).
• The Highways Department is reported to be
maintaining 717 footbridges, 435 subways
(Audit, 2010) and 730km of railings as at
December 2009 (SCMP, 2010) while the total
road network was only 1,977km in 2007.

HK, An Unwalkable City

We don’t like level changes and detours
• A 2003 survey found that 70% of the respondents
preferred at-grade crossings to footbridges and
subways.
• Many pedestrians do not like to use footbridges and
subways because of the need to walk longer distances
involving staircases or ramps.
(Census, 2003) (TPDM, V6.10.4.2.3.xiii.h) (Appendix 7).
• Police reports of territory-wide pedestrian safety
campaigns show that pedestrians often ignore
footbridges and pedestrian subways and cross roads
climbing over kerbside fences and through central
reservations (Police, 2010)

Designing Hong Kong Research 2011
• What do people prefer?
• How do people choose their routes?
• 98% residents
• 57% male, 43% female
• 78% between 22 and 55 years old
• HKI (42%), KLN (30%), NT/Islands (28%)

77% prefer street level crossings

Responses
Especially when the weather is nice

But when it rains: Tunnels and footbridges

Hong Kong
A key component of a city’s LIVEABILITY
• 80% of Hong Kong people walk everyday
• Hong Kong is a walkable city: you don’t need a car to get around
• The challenge:
– how to make it enjoyable for people to walk longer
– how to make it enable people to walk further
• Resolve obstacles pedestrians face:
Detours, level changes, over-crowding, obstructions, conflict with
vehicles, inclement weather, air and noise pollution
• Offer route and level choice
Walkable streets, livable city

V
X
Comprehensive overlapping network with route and level choice
Typical Hong Kong pedestrian network: Limited choice, forced detours
Walkable streets, livable city

Central

Figure 13: Ground-level pedestrian map of Central
Central – Street level

Figure 14: Below-ground pedestrian map of Central
Central – Subway

Figure 15: Above-ground pedestrian map of Central
Central – Elevated

Figure 12: Overall pedestrian map of Central
Central

Tsim Sha Tsui

TST Ground Network
Figure 3: Ground-level pedestrian map of Tsim Sha Tsui
Tsim Sha Tsui - Street

TST Below-Ground Network
Figure 4: Below-ground pedestrian map of Tsim Sha Tsui
Tsim Sha Tsui - Subway

TST Above-Ground Network
Figure 5: Above-ground pedestrian map of Tsim Sha Tsui
Tsim Sha Tsui - Elevated

Figure 2: Overall pedestrian map of Tsim Sha Tsui
Tsim Sha Tsui

Tsuen Wan

Figure 18: Ground-level pedestrian map of Tsuen Wan
Tsuen Wan – Street level

Figure 19: Below-ground pedestrian map of Tsuen Wan
Tsuen Wan – Subway

Figure 20: Above-ground pedestrian map of Tsuen Wan
Tsuen Wan – Elevated

Figure 17: Overall pedestrian map of Tsuen Wan
Tsuen Wan

Tai Kok Tsui

Figure 8: Ground-level pedestrian map of Tai Kok Tsui
Tai Kok Tsui – Street level

Figure 9: Below-ground pedestrian map of Tai Kok Tsui
Tai Kok Tsui – Subway

Figure 10: Above-ground pedestrian map of Tai Kok Tsui
Tai Kok Tsui – Elevated

Figure 7: Overall pedestrian map of Tai Kok Tsui
Tai Kok Tsui

Yau Ma Tei

30haLand taken by roads, flyovers and amenity areas segregating neighbourhoods.

Kai Tak

20haResidential neighbourhoods are segregated from the leisure, recreation and sports activities
along the approach channel by roads, flyovers and amenity areas.

Can we create active corridors
with GFA for mixed uses under
and on top of road infrastructure
so that people can enjoy the area
around the approach channel, an
area which has potentially the
same properties as Marina Bay
and Darling Harbour??

Crossings

Detours
Electric Road and King Wah Road

Wanna cross the road?
Mong Kok Road and Tung Choi Street

Fight!
Mong Kok Road and Tung Choi Street

Fight!
Mong Kok Road and Tung Choi Street

Fight!
Mong Kok Road and Tung Choi Street

Fight!
Mong Kok Road and Tung Choi Street

Wanna cross the road?
King’s Road and Model Lane

Wanna cross the road?
King’s Road and Model Lane

Run!
King’s Road and Model Lane

Run!
King’s Road and Model Lane

Run!
King’s Road and Model Lane

Intermittent
footpaths

Video
www.missinglinks.hk
Video

Obstructions

Escalator at High Street near Bonham Road

Seats

Toilets

Toilets

Way finding

Incomplete map of subway network

Complete map of subway network

Make sure maps are pointing north?

Rethink signage?

Legible
Hong Kong
Wayfinding
in
a
multi-layered
City

Walkability

Walkability
Global trend
A key component of a city’s LIVEABILITY
• Walking is good to health and the environment
• Pedestrian-First Approach to city planning
needed
• Pedestrian network is the city’s most important
public space, not only for transport, but also for
social life
• “People will walk when they can sit…”
• Choice is good
• Priority street level – truly public

Common Issues
• Long detours and level changes
• Street obstacles
• Universal access lacking
• Lack of seating
• Street aesthetics
• Way-finding obstacles, especially for people with
disabilities
A key component of a city’s LIVEABILITY

Principles for comprehensive multi-layered pedestrian networks
• Sufficient connectivity, allowing for ample route choice
– Preserve ground-level connections when possible (remove
barriers, add crosswalks)
– Allow travel without forced entrance into private shopping
areas
• Well-integrated level changes
• Diversity of amenities, public rights of access and recreation
• Comprehensive standardized way-finding system
A key component of a city’s LIVEABILITY

Recommendations
• Plan for district networks, not just station networks
• Resolve land premiums
• Prioritize pedestrian connectivity at street level
• Fix street level crossings – favour pedestrians
• Widen effective footway (remove obstacles, widen pavement)
• Integrate parks and properties into pedestrian network planning
• Provide comprehensive overlapping grade separated network
• Branding of the grade separated network
• Name tunnels and bridges (same name as road above/under?)
• Extent visual identity of properties (land marks)
• Way finding
• Standardize signage, maps
• Experience
• Seats and toilets
• Diversity and truly public spaces at all levels
A key component of a city’s LIVEABILITY

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World Class Streets – Remaking NY

Video
www.missinglinks.hk
Video