Walkable City, Living Streets - Civic Exchange

124 Pages·2013·6.98 MB·English

Event Report
Walkable City,
Living Streets
7 May 2013
DRINKS
WATER
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................3
Executve Summary.....................................................................................................................4
Opening and Keynote Speeches.................................................................................................7
Session 1: Pedestrian Network Planning...................................................................................14
• Efectve Pedestrian Planning – Lessons Learnt
• A Mult-Layered City – How Do We Make It Work?
• Universally Accessible Pedestrian Environment
• Chair Response
• Queston & Answer Session
Session 2: Pedestrian Safety.....................................................................................................44
• Safer and Atractve Streets in Hong Kong – the Future Rests on Lower Speed Limits
• The Walkable Urban Environment and Pedestrian Exposure
• Easing the Way – Improving Pedestrian Movement on Urban Streets
• Chair Response
• Queston & Answer Session
Lunch-Time Forum...................................................................................................................68
Session 3: Streets as Public Space ...........................................................................................69
• Making Walkable Places in Kowloon East
• Revitalising Public Spaces: The Tai Yuen Experience
• Let’s Reclaim Our Streets!
• Chair Response
• Queston & Answer Session
Panel Discussion ......................................................................................................................98
• Queston & Answer Session
Thanks and Closing.................................................................................................................118
Appendices ............................................................................................................................120
• Programme
• Speakers’ & Panelists’ Biographies
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Acknowledgements
Civic Exchange would like to thank the following people and organisatons:
• Community for Road Safety and Designing Hong Kong for co-organising
this event;
• Development Bureau Energizing Kowloon East Ofce, MTR Corporaton
and New World Development for funding this event, and especially
Development Bureau Energizing Kowloon East Ofce for sponsoring the
venue;
• American Insttute of Architects Hong Kong, Asian Society for Traumatc
Stress Studies, The Chartered Insttuton of Highways and Transportaton
Hong Kong Branch, The Chartered Insttute of Logistcs and Transport in
Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Insttute of Landscape Architects, The Hong
Kong Insttute of Planners, Hong Kong Insttuton of Urban Design, Hong
Kong Public Space Initatves, Insttute of Advanced Motorists Hong Kong
and 30SGroup for supportng this event;
• Mr. Chi-Sing Wai, Prof. Anthony Bing-leung Cheung, Mr. Sam Chow, Mr.
Paul Zimmerman, Mr. Joseph Kwan, Mr. Julian Kwong, Dr. Zhi Ning, Mr. Neil
Adams, Dr. Wing-tat Hung, Mr. Vincent Wong, Mr. Raymond Lee, Dr. Calvin
Kwan, Mr. Gavin Coates, Mr. Fred Brown, Ms. Gigi Lau, Ms. Ada Ying-Kay
Wong and Ms. Xiaomei Duan for their presentatons, contributons to the
panel discussions and commentaries;
• Mr. Oren Tatcher, Mr. Cameron MacDonald and Prof. Melissa Cate Christ
for chairing the sessions;
• Yan-yan Yip for delivering the closing note;
• Simon Ng, Paul Zimmerman, Julian Kwong, Michelle Wong, Rae
Leung, Debby Chan, Denis Leung and Cissy Lui for event planning and
coordinaton;
• Christopher Yuen and Development Bureau Energizing Kowloon East Ofce
for taking event photos;
• Rae Leung for designing this event summary;
• Cissy Lui and Sonya Chen for preparing the event report and
• Bryan Suen, Kate Ng, Martn Lai, Iris Chan, Wilson Lau, Carine Lai, Hoyt
Lui, Ryan Li, Kenneth Wong, Lilian Ngan, Micah Woo, Cliford Chang for
their help on the day.
Event presentatons, videos, speaker biographies and programme are available
on the event website at: htp://www.civic-exchange.org/wp/walkability_en/
Civic Exchange is a nonproft public policy think tank that helps improve policy
and decision-making through research and analysis.
This summary is based on transcripts recorded at the conference held on
7 May 2013, and the opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily
represent those of Civic Exchange. Please refer to the event videos for the full
comments. 3
Executve Summary
In support of the Second United Natons Global Road Safety Week
focused on ‘pedestrian safety’, Civic Exchange, Community for Road
Safety and Designing Hong Kong co-hosted a full day event enttled
Walkable City, Living Streets on three themes, ‘Pedestrian Network
Planning’, ‘Pedestrian Safety’ and ‘Streets as Public Space’. Around
170 people atended this Conference to discuss these maters and to
hear speeches and presentatons from:
Mr. Chi-Sing Wai, JP, Permanent Secretary for Development (Works),
HKSAR government. As venue sponsor of the event, Mr Wai
welcomed all partcipants and highlighted the government’s vision is
to create walkable pedestrian environment and improve trafc;
Prof. Anthony Bing-leung Cheung, GBS, JP, Secretary for Transport
and Housing, HKSAR government. Prof. Cheung shared government’s
ongoing eforts and future plans in providing pedestrian-friendly
environment in certain areas such as Kai Tak, Kwu Tung North, Yuen
Long Town, Soho District in Central;
Mr. Sam Chow, Director at ARUP, described various case studies on
pedestrian planning, including MTR Admiralty interchange staton,
shopping mall in Shanghai, racecourse in Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui
area, as well as research on pedestrian behaviors of diferent Chinese
cites;
Mr. Paul Zimmerman, CEO of Designing Hong Kong, started with
the history of transport policies in Hong Kong, then illustrated the
walkability of various districts in Hong Kong through mapping tools,
as well as examples of obstacles and lack of facilites at street level;
Mr. Joseph Kwan, Founding Director of UDA Consultants Ltd,
focused on the universal accessibility of city design by discussing
the internatonal and local rules, bad examples and good practces
worldwide;
Credit: EKEO
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Mr. Oren Tatcher, Principal of OTC Ltd, touched on the scale of
diferent walking distances and that Hong Kong does not encourage
long distance walking;
Mr. Julian Kwong, founding chair of Community for Road Safety,
highlighted the benefts of introducton of lower speed limits zones
in Hong Kong includes reducton of pedestrian casualtes and
fatalites;
Dr. Zhi Ning, Assistant Professor in the School of Energy and
Environment at City University of Hong Kong, described the
health impacts of roadside air polluton, the causes and policy
recommendatons to reduce it by phasing out old buses and trucks,
and set up of Low Emission Zones;
Mr. Neil Adams, formerly Chief Engineer Network Operatons
at Transport for London (TfL), showed examples of his works in
London that improved pedestrian conditon, such as Oxford Circus,
Piccadilly by squaring the circle, trafc signal cycle and pedestrian
countdown;
Mr. Cameron MacDonald, Associate Director of Atkins China
Ltd shared some global guidelines and practces on road safety,
relevant risk factors and safe walking framework;
Mr. Raymond Lee, Head of Energizing Kowloon East Ofce (EKEO),
Development Bureau of HKSAR Government. Mr. Lee introduced
the vision of EKEO, which was to transform the Kowloon East area
into another core business district of Hong Kong. He shared the
progress made so far and challenges they faced at Kowloon East, as
well as quick win strategies and temporary events to test potental
future uses;
Dr. Calvin Kwan, Senior Manager (Sustainability) of The Link
Management Ltd, showcased the revitalizaton of Tai Yuen wet
market based on the company’s sustainability initatves. The
change facilitated sales, job opportunites and accessibility, and it is
a valuable example on how private sector engages in public spaces;
Mr. Gavin Coates, a Landscape Architect, illustrated with examples
the vehicle-oriented planning street design in Hong Kong, and the
possibilites to reclaim the streets for pedestrians make our streets
more atractve to pedestrians by various creatve ways including
tree-plantng and footpath expansion; and
Prof. Melissa Cate Christ, Assistant Professor of Landscape
Architecture at the University of Hong Kong, touched on diferent
streets and stairs in Hong Kong, and the ways people use them
contribute to the complexity of pedestrian network.
The event ended of with a panel discussion enhanced with
comments from:
Mr. Fred Brown, MVA, showed what we are going to achieve and
what we already commited, also hurdles and lack of cooperaton
between private and public sector;
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Ms. Gigi Lau, 30SGroup, highlighted the challenges pedestrians
facing in a multlayered city as well as some good practces and how
people try to make places work and make it atractve;
Ms. Ada Ying-Kay Wong, JP, Hong Kong Insttute of Contemporary
Culture, shared her experience at district level; and
Ms. Xiaomei Duan, Insttute for Transportaton and Development
Policy, provided development examples in Guangzhou.
Throughout the event, expert commentators and partcipants raised
a range of issues including:
• Planning of level change in multlayered pedestrian network;
• Increase in cycling facilites;
• Change of trafc signal cycles to match pedestrian behaviour;
• Top-level commitment from government is essental;
• Adopton of low speed zones to calm trafc;
• Trafc noise disturbs residental area;
• Defniton of public space;
• Right proporton of trees, footpaths, seatng facilites should be
considered;
• Public engagement and partcipaton should be encouraged to
come up with a vision for the city; and
• Beter collaboraton between public and private sectors.
Please see the event programme and speaker biographies in the
appendices.
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Opening and Keynote Speeches
Opening Remarks
Mr. Simon Ng
Civic Exchange
Prof. Anthony Cheung, Mr. Wai Chi-sing, distnguished guests,
speakers and panelists, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
On behalf of the three co-organisers, including Civic Exchange,
Community for Road Safety, and Designing Hong Kong, I want to
thank you for coming to this Walkable City, Living Streets conference.
The main objectve of this conference is to promote and improve
walkability in Hong Kong. To encourage people to walk more and for
longer distance, we also want to promote pedestrian safety. In this
respect, this conference is organised to support the Second United
Natons Global Road Safety Week this week, which is dedicated to
pedestrian safety.
When I look across this room, packed with people and flled with
passion, it gives me enormous pride and pleasure that a lot of people
actually care about our city and our pedestrians. Afer all, we are
pedestrians every day and walking has become part of our daily
life. Yet, we tend to neglect its importance, and expect the walking
environment to take care of itself without careful planning.
Today, we want to emphasise the need to plan our city for people.
We will explore ways to plan for beter pedestrian networks, to
protect people from trafc accidents and poor air quality, and to
make streets an atractve place to visit. I am not sure whether this
is the frst conference in Hong Kong that is dedicated to pedestrians
and their needs. However, I am certain that, with all your supports,
this is not going to be the last.
I want to take this opportunity to thank those who share Civic
Exchange’s passion for beter pedestrian planning in Hong Kong,
including Julian Kwong of Community for Road Safety and Paul
Zimmerman of Designing Hong Kong. I want to thank Soluton on
Wheels to co-host our lunch-tme forum. I want to thank the ten
supportng organizatons and I am going to read out their names
because I really appreciate their support:
• American Insttute of Architects Hong Kong
• Asian Society for Traumatc Stress Studies
• The Chartered Insttuton of Highways and Transportaton Hong
Kong Branch
• The Chartered Insttute of Logistcs and Transport in Hong Kong
• The Hong Kong Insttute of Landscape Architects
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• The Hong Kong Insttute of Planners
• Hong Kong Insttuton of Urban Design
• Hong Kong Public Space Initatves
• Insttute of Advanced Motorists Hong Kong
• 30SGroup
I also want to express my grattude to MTR Corporaton and New
World Development Company Limited, not only for their sponsorship
but also for the great work they have been doing to improve
walkability in Hong Kong.
Last but not least, I want to thank Energizing Kowloon East
Ofce of the Development Bureau for being our partner. They
provide sponsorship to this event, and also allow us to host it
in this wonderful venue. As we are on their home soil, I fnd it
extremely ftng to invite Mr. Wai Chi-sing, Permanent Secretary
for Development of the HKSAR Government, to deliver his welcome
remarks. Please welcome Mr. Wai.
Welcome Remarks
Mr. Chi-Sing Wai, JP
Permanent Secretary for Development (Works), HKSAR
government
Credit: EKEO
Good morning Prof. Anthony Cheung (the Secretary for Transport
and Housing), Mr Simon NG (Head of Transport and Sustainability
Research, Civic Exchange), Mr Julian KWONG (Chairman of
Community for Road Safety), Mr Paul Zimmerman (CEO of Designing
Hong Kong), Ladies and Gentlemen!
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First of all, it gives me great pleasure to be invited by the organisers,
Civic Exchange, Community for Road Safety and Designing Hong
Kong, to give a welcoming speech for today’s conference. On behalf
of the Development Bureau, may I extend a warm welcome to all of
you to our Energizing Kowloon East Ofce (EKEO). I’m glad that the
organisers fnd this place made out of recycled containers under a
fyover in Kwun Tong a good venue for this event.
EKEO was established in June last year to facilitate the transformaton
of Kowloon East into a core business district to support Hong Kong’s
long-term economic growth. In the past 11 months, we have been
‘place-making’ this area so that the community would like to work,
to do business, to walk, to stay and to play here. One of our main
strategies is to enhance ‘Connectvity’. This is indeed the frst ‘C’ of
our ‘CBDD’ (or CBD2), which is ‘Connectvity’, ‘Branding’, ‘Design’
and ‘Diversity’. We aim at creatng a pedestrian environment here
which is “walkable”, “stayable” and “sitable” and at the same tme
improving the trafc situaton within Kowloon East. This is a humble
aim, but yet we are facing a lot of challenges as you can imagine in
this high density area which is not designed as a business district
at the start, and today with a working populaton of some 220,000.
In February this year, we have commissioned a study to improve
the pedestrian and trafc environment in Kowloon Bay Business
Area. We are also working with the Design School of the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University on a research project on connectvity and
mobility. We are looking forward to some innovatve solutons and
we will share our fndings with you later.
I would like to take this chance to thank many Bureaux and
Departments which have been fully supportng the work of EKEO
all along, in partcular our close working partners – Transport and
Housing Bureau, Transport Department and Highways Department.
They have worked with us hand in hand over the past months to
implement many local improvement works which bring immediate
improvements on walkability and beter road trafc conditon. With
their dedicated eforts, 41 local road junctons including trafc signs,
pedestrian crossing and trafc signals etc. will be improved and
some of the works have already been completed. The streetscape
and greening works will also be further enhanced. In the tme to
come, we will contnue to improve the pedestrian environment
including development of pedestrian links and other necessary trafc
improvement measures to create a walkable, green and low-carbon
CBD. The ttle of today’s conference – “Walkable City, Living Streets”–
is no doubt a perfect ft of our vision.
Hong Kong, a heavily built-up metropolitan city, is well known for
its very efcient rail-base and road-base transport system. In Hong
Kong, I am not sure whether we should promote cycling in the urban
areas, but walkability and vibrancy of our streets are essental to the
success of our CBDs. How to make this area more walkable? What
shall be done to make our streets ‘live’? I am sure this conference will
provide a good platorm for professionals, academia and all of you
to exchange views and explore ways that are practcal and applicable
here. EKEO welcomes such suggestons and would ofer Kowloon East
to be the experimental ground for trying out some of the innovatve
ideas.
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In the afernoon session, my colleague Raymond Lee, who is the Head
of EKEO, will talk about how to make Kowloon East more walkable. I
hope you will appreciate how we are working towards this objectve.
Today’s lunch-tme forum will be held at our open space beneath the
fyover just next to this ofce. This piece of land was opened to public
as an informal cultural venue since January this year. I hope you will
enjoy this public open space that we have created for the people of
Hong Kong.
Finally, I wish the conference a great success! Thank you.
Keynote Presentaton
Prof. Anthony Bing-leung Cheung, GBS, JP
Secretary for Transport and Housing, HKSAR government
Mr Wai (Chi-sing), Mr (Simon) Ng, distnguished guests, ladies and
Credit: EKEO
gentlemen,I am very delighted to be invited to this conference on
Walkable City, Living Streets co-organised by the Civic Exchange,
Community for Road Safety and Designing Hong Kong. The
conference is tmely as this new Administraton seeks to promote
a green transport environment which should include a pedestrian-
friendly dimension. Our goal sounds simple, but we do not
underestmate the challenges before us - resultng from Hong Kong's
compact and congested city space and previous policy legacies. Here
I would like to share with you some of my thoughts.
Although Hong Kong has a highly efcient and extensive public
transport system which accounts for about 90 per cent of the
vehicular trips, everyone walks to diferent extent each day.
According to the territory-wide Travel Characteristcs Survey that
the Transport Department completed in 2012, about 30 per cent of
Hong Kong residents made at least one walk-only trip on a normal
weekday, and over 70 per cent of our commuters walked to access a
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