Generating Urban Lifestyle: The Case of Hong Kong

New-Town Design and Local Travel Behaviour

JOHN ZACHARIAS

Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

ABSTRACT The urban design of new towns embodies a movement and exchange systemthat has been consciously developed in relation to a set of expected human behaviours. Inthe history of new towns, these expectations have been variously fulfilled, but with rareinvestigations into the design causes. This study of Hong Kong new towns examinesdifferences in travel behaviour between one early town and two later ones. While thegeneral plans were quite similar and travel was expected to be the same in the towns,considerable differences were observed. Features of the town-centre design, details of themovement system and local environmental design all explain the differences in localbehaviour. Differences in the size of the town, distance from the town centre and publictransportation alternatives are all relatively unimportant in explaining the differences inlocal travel behaviour of residents. These findings point to the need for more empiricalinvestigation into the effectiveness of urban design generally, and local environmentaldesign in particular. Such findings could be highly useful in the continuing development ofnew and satellite towns in China.

Introduction

The literature on planned new towns in Europe and Asia has focused primarily onthe organization of space and movement according to general principles of townoperations (see, for example, Galantay, 1975). Plans in the form of three-dimensional scale models not only allow a visualization of the environment butalso embody expectations of daily travel patterns, lifestyle and the social characterof public places. The innovative urban forms that have marked the new-townprogrammes of the UK, the Netherlands, France or Hong Kong, among others,assume the adoption of certain living patterns (see, for example, Holston, 1989). Inmost cases, such expectations are explicitly stated in planning documents. Thereare, however, relatively few cases of post-hoc studies of such towns to measure theeffect on behaviour patterns of features of the urban design. The effects ofpedestrianization on behaviour represent one example of accumulated evidence(Bishop, 1975; Bentham & Haynes, 1985; Gehl, 1987). Such studies tend to be onhighly specific forms of activity, or else they examine the general communityoutcomes. Similarly, the layout of the movement system has been studied for itsrole in the distribution of pedestrians (Teklenburg et al., 1994; Hillier, 1996). In all

Correspondence Address: John Zacharias, Concordia University, 1455 de MaisonneuveBoulevard West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3G 1M8. Email: zachar@vax2.concordia.ca

Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 10. No. 3, 371–386, October 2005

1357-4809 Print/1469-9664 Online/05/030371-16 q 2005 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/13574800500297843

these cases, the findings do not relate directly enough to the physical form of thecity to be of use in evaluating the effectiveness of specific features of urban design.These developments are useful in general evaluations of design but do not offerinsights at the micro scale of street corners, buildings and spaces, where mostdesign decisions are made. More specifically, it is difficult to knowwhat differenceit would make to patterns of living to reconfigure open spaces or groups ofbuildings.

The principal advantage of studying the effect of design on living patterns ina new town is the generally clear and consistent spatial organization in thatcontext. In contrast, parts of cities that have developed over time and according toa mix of plans and unregulated growth are often very difficult to characterize in aformal sense for the purposes of empirical investigation. The new-townexperiments of Hong Kong are an excellent laboratory for understanding thesocial and economic effects of large-scale design because of the highly controlledand centralized planning system and a set of design principles that remainedlargely unchanged for the 40 years of the building programme (Bristow, 1989).Such design continuity allows the researcher to evaluate the effect of a limited setof clear design changes. Arrangements of buildings on extensive plots of land,combined with community and recreational facilities, open space, storage andmovement space, called for some explicit understanding of how the project would‘work’. This mechanistic view of the layout and massing of the project alsoembodied clear evocations of daily life that are particularly explicit where theplanners discuss modifications in plans from one generation of towns to the next.Changes to later plans were often proposed to correct for a plan feature thatcontributed to some dysfunction, while perceived positive results reinforced thepresence of features thought to contribute to those results. Human-usecharacteristics and experience of the plan feature entered into the chronologicalaccount of such town developments and can be found in abundance in theliterature, in several languages and national contexts, including the authors citedin this article. What the literature has largely lacked is solid empirical evidence insupport of an urban design feature or property of the urban fabric, relying largelyon isolated case studies and qualitative assessments of individual cases—thispaper is a modest step in the direction of supplying more empirical evidence.

Hong Kong’s development is of great interest as a designed environmentwith a high degree of control and replication across the town. Also, densities aresufficiently high that effects are large and so relatively easy to discern. HongKong’s planning also serves as an interesting laboratory for urban development inChina. Until very recently, satellite and new-town development in China hadtaken quite a different form from that in Hong Kong, with a greater emphasis onroad-based transportation, for example. Projected continued urbanization inChina is an enormous project with very important implications for theenvironment and economy of the world. Cities in China have substantialautonomy to decide how they should grow (Zhu, 1999). The new-townmovementof the late 20th century should be mined for its lessons about fundamental urbandesign issues of relevance to the urbanizing world of today.

This paper looks at one set of behaviours that can be associated with urbandesign both at the town level and at the level of landscape detail. The differentlevels of use of bicycles in local travel in towns point to specific differences inlayout and accessibility. The level of bicycle use in a town is the result of acollective evaluation of the travel possibilities offered by the local environment.

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Those possibilities reside largely, if not exclusively, in the physical fabric. In ourcase, different levels of bicycle use imply a conscious decision on the part of manyindividuals to use the designed infrastructure in a different way from theresidents of another town having certain different design characteristics. Thispaper compares bicycle use as a function of urban design in Generation 1 and 3towns in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Arguably, the overall layout, densityand accessibility network characteristics of the two sets of towns are clearly moresimilar to each other than to any other new-town design one can point to—evenCumbernauld, a model for early new-town urban design in Hong Kong (Bristow,1989). Between new towns in Hong Kong there are, nevertheless, specificdifferences in design that, for the most part, cannot be discerned in the outlineplans.

A very clear and detailed account of the expected transport outcome isavailable directly from the published plans for the new towns. Bristow (1989)provides a comprehensive list of outline plans for Generation 1–3 towns. Theactual expected behaviour is also relatively simple to describe since the planimplies volume and direction of movement, modal splits and the associated traveldistances. It remains to find an appropriate way to describe the urbanenvironment itself in such a way that it is useful for understanding differentbehaviours. If it is true, as we expect, that behaviour outcomes in relation todesign require the inclusion of a number of variables, it is difficult to proceed to asingle formalization at this time. Instead we use a generalized metric andrelational description of the systems and space and relate these to observedbehaviour. In our case the repetition of nearly identical conditions across theurban fabric and associated behaviour of large numbers of individuals over spaceprovide strong support for the general design hypotheses, if not the detaileddesigns.

The twin towns of Sheung Shui and Fanling along with the large town ofShatin are the sample town environments. These town designs are compared atthree levels: (1) the distribution of densities and the transportation network; (2)the town centre and railway station designs; and (3) environmental design andlocal behaviour at estates at various distances from the town centre. The intentionis to gauge the effect of differences in design between towns and betweenlocations within towns. The infrastructure of the movement systems variesbetween towns in some obvious design elements. How detailed design affects useis looked at first-hand with actual use and movement of certain importantinfrastructures such as crossing points. First we need to measure differences inbehaviour across environments. Second, we need to consider what it is in thethree-dimensional design of these towns that leads to such different behaviour.Along the way, we need to eliminate or account for other possible explanations forthe travel patterns.

A Comparison of the General Plans of the Two Towns

The New Territories new towns are located in river valleys—Sheung Shui,Fanling—or around a harbour, often also a river mouth—Shatin. The bottom orlevelled land was built up intensively in a highly integrated, high-density townwhere most people were expected to walk and use public transport. The roadsystem was conceived as a high-efficiency network of relatively narrow roadswith engineered curves and minimized red cycles to keep vehicles moving

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quickly. Extensive high-rise housing estates permitted the inclusion on site ofcommunity and recreational facilities, convenience shopping, as well as openspace. These large estates covering several hectares were interspersed with majortown facilities including hospitals, educational institutions, civic facilities andparks. Overall densities are, by world standards, very high at between 300 and 400persons per hectare over the entire urban area. Estate densities of 1000–2000persons/ha are more common than unusual, with lower densities reserved forsites at higher elevation, near major roads or adjacent to pre-existing villages. As aresult of this high population density in a small area, large pedestrian flows aregenerated along particular paths within the town. This was a template for

Figure 1. The high-density residential estate development of Shatin is shown, along with the lower-density estate development and incorporated villages. Circles of different sizes are used to illustrate

numbers of parked bicycles in use at the town centre and in residential estates.

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new-town development from the early 1960s, and has continued uninterrupteduntil today. Within this accepted pattern, there are interesting differences inapproach to a number of urban design issues that are discussed later in this article.

Shatin had a population of 617 000 in 2001 (Figure 1), compared with SheungShui–Fanling with 239 300. Sheung Shui and Fanling—hereafter referred to asSheung Shui unless specific reference is made to Fanling—can be consideredtogether since they are contiguous and were planned simultaneously (Figure 2).Both sets of towns are still short of their target populations: 704 000 for Shatin and280 000 for the other two. Overall densities of the two towns are equivalent: Shatinhas a density of 372 persons/ha over the entire developed urban area, whileSheung Shui has 310. The real difference in residential density between the townsis in reality much smaller, as evidenced by the regularity of the building footprintsand heights and their relative presence in the whole (Figure 3). Shatin has a muchlarger area devoted to industry and public facilities of various kinds. It is true,however, that the entire urban area of Shatin is substantially larger than that of itsnorthern neighbour. The contiguous urbanized area of Shatin is about 6 km longand 2 kmwide on average, while Sheung Shui is 4.2 km long and just 1.4 kmwide.The difference in urban area suggests that walking distance to the city centre

Figure 2. The twin new towns of Sheung Shui and Fanling are organized around two KCR stations.High-density residential areas are all new high-rise estate developments, while other residential areasinclude original village development and new lower-density estates. Also shown is the distribution of

parked bicycles in use.

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would effectively cover more of Sheung Shui than of Shatin. However, even withan expected maximumwalking distance of one kilometre, a minority of visitors tothe town centre or nearest railway station could be expected to be on foot. Thisproportion could be further reduced through delay built into the movementsystem. All traffic is channelled along circumferential systems with infrequentconnections to the city centre or to the outside. Extensive and effective barrierschannel all pedestrian and cycle traffic to a very limited number of crossings ofthis fast road network. As a consequence, distances to the city centre varyconsiderably, as much a function of the network design as of actual metricdistance. Walking distances vary considerably. For example, walking distances tothe estates north of the town centre of Sheung Shui are between 1.4 and 1.7 timeslonger than the shortest straight-line distance, while estates lying close to theKowloon–Canton Railway line have pedestrian and cycle paths marginallylonger than the shortest straight-line distance. Specially designed barriers make itimpossible or very difficult to short-circuit the system.

The fact that the pedestrian system was highly circuitous with respect todestination was considered relatively unimportant because people were expectedto use public transport to reach the vicinity of the town centre. Early thinking,following the British example, was to attempt to create a balance between jobs and

Figure 3. Detail of Belair Gardens and City One Shatin high-density residential estates reveals thehierarchical local transport system with a high degree of traffic separation.

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housing within the town. This is one reason for the extensive cycle networks innearly all the towns: it was reasoned that some people would elect to walk or cycleto their workplaces. However, it became apparent in the first-generation townswith substantial industrial estates, like Tsuen Wan, that jobs could not be matchedto residents. In addition, industrial restructuring occurred at regular intervals andresidents of the town saw the entire Hong Kong metropolitan area as the jobmarket. This unforeseen mobility of new-town residents placed considerablepressure on the rail-based public transport system and also changed travelpatterns within the towns.

The primary movement system into and out of the new town was therailway—the double-tracked Kowloon–Canton Railway (KCR) connectingKowloon with Luohu in Shenzhen. The opportunity to exploit reasonably flatland adjacent to the railway was also the impetus for rebuilding the stations aslarge-capacity exchange nodes for the towns. As a result, the great majority oftrips within each town were to and from the town centre located adjacent to or ontop of the railway. Bus routes almost all began and ended in the vicinity of therailway station. A distributor road network offered the opportunity to loop thebus lines between estates, providing a relatively fast service to the station vicinitywhile also maintaining a very frequent and regular service. Nevertheless, thislayout is a compromise between the ability to use building land efficiently andcreating an efficient road system from a transport perspective. A more efficientpublic transport system would have been achieved in a hierarchical, radialsystem; as it is, the road system was designed largely to service the blocksthemselves, with the blocks off-set and organic in plan, following the Britishmodel.

Patterns of use and relative sizes of the associated land areas are the same inthese towns—a consequence of the uniform Hong Kong Planning Standards andGuidelines as well as the extraordinary cohesiveness and durability of the estatedevelopment concept. The layouts of the two towns are idiosyncratic in thespecific order and grouping of various estate blocks and their uses, but thesequencing, density and arrangement on the ground of the planned areas cannotbe distinguished at this scale. Also, the proportions of land area devoted to high-,medium- and low-density residential use are approximately the same in the twocommunities (Figures 1, 2). High-density urban blocks are interspersed withcommunity uses and open space, with adjacent lower-density residential districtsand finally industrial estates. Agricultural villages and traditional market townsthat existed prior to the new towns have mostly been integrated into the townplans.

It might be argued that social, ethnic and economic factors might help explainthe differences in local travel behaviour in the two towns. In general, where theyhave been shown to exist, such differences have not proven to be very importantto behaviour. In the case of Hong Kong, the population has become increasinglyhomogeneous. Variations in linguistic identity and income vary marginally acrossnew towns (Lin, 2002). Therefore, socio-economic and demographic differencescan be ruled out as an explanatory factor in local travel behaviour.

In conclusion, it is difficult to see why the size of the community or theattendant land-use structure could have a measurable impact on local transportdifferences such as those observed. More specifically, the general outline plan failsto explain why there are differences in local movement behaviour. Next the

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movement systems are examined for their possible contribution to local travelpatterns.

A Comparison of the Road Networks and the Public Bus System

The road networks are laid out at approximately the same density, at 300–500-metre intervals, most of the difference between these levels accounted for bygeographic barriers. In Shatin, the network is deeper, as could be expected in atown more than twice the size of Sheung Shui. However, in Shatin, the roadnetwork is also more hierarchical, in part due to the presence of a greater numberof major thoroughfares. In fact, there are three major dedicated, controlled-accessroads running through Shatin. These roads often form a large loop with links ontothe highways between towns. There is a secondary system to serve the estates thatdo not have direct access to the main distributor roads. There are no cul-de-sacs inthe system except for access into public-utility facilities and parking garages. Thedistributor roads were designed for smooth and unsaturated flow and retain thesecharacteristics today, even with a rise in the number of privately owned cars. Thekey questions in the first instance concern the location of the pick-up points andthe time of travel.

The greater depth of the urban fabric, it could be argued, necessitated moreseparation and higher vehicle loadings. The distributor road system of Shatin issubstantially busier than that in Sheung Shui. On the other hand, one might arguethat this greater depth increases the level of service and so should make it moreattractive to walk on local trips. In any event, the two towns differ somewhat inthis important design element.

The bus systems operate from dedicated stations under, beside or in thevicinity of the railway stations. There are separate taxi stations. All motor vehicles,upon exiting the loading areas, enter the distributor road system. Large publicbuses have stops on the distributor roads, while the smaller ‘light’ or ‘green’ buseshave stations within estates or operate along small roads in the traditionalcommunities. In Shatin, there are more double-decker buses on roads shared bytwo or more bus lines, while in Sheung Shui the buses tend to be of a standard sizewith fewer or just one line on an urban road. The entire road network is served bythe bus system converging on the stations. The density of the bus network isvirtually identical in the two towns, except for a higher density of service in theimmediate vicinity of Shatin station. The frequency of service for individual linesvaries between 3 and 20minutes for local buses, but averages 13minutes overall forboth towns (bus-line data provided by Hong Kong Special Administrative Region(SAR), in 2003 at the author’s request). In other words, there is no distinction to bemade between the towns in terms of the level of public bus service. Given that thebus service in the two towns is used at different levels and for different purposes,the reasons must lie elsewhere.

A Comparison of the Non-motorized Path Systems

Pedestrian movement is highly channelled. The controlled-access roads aretraversed in pedestrian and cycling underpasses, positioned centrally in the townwith respect to the railway station. Separate pedestrian and cycling tracks withbarriers and directional signs can be seen throughout both towns, in keeping withlegislated design requirements (Hong Kong SAR, 2004b, 2004c). Because of the low

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gradients observed—generally below 3%—the infrastructure for the crossings isquite extensive. This is an additional reason for limiting the number of crossingsof major roads, since land-use efficiency is a high priority in land-strappedHong Kong.

There are also level crossings that invariably take a single trajectory across anintersection, timed to avoid conflictwith vehicularmovement cycles. Theremay beas many as six separately signalled crossings at a major intersection. Whereunderpasses have been provided, controlled pedestrian crossings at adjacentintersections are inmany cases not provided. In certain cases, previous crossings ofthis kind have been removed where they were thought to be redundant orunderused.

Pedestrian bridges are located mostly in the town centres. In Shatin there aredistricts immediately north-east of the town centre where a continuous web ofraisedwalkways between and through buildings has been devised that connects atthe same levelwith the high-density housing surrounding the station, the shoppingcentre and the civic centre. Nearly all the commercial space is at the third levelabove the street (Figure 4). Sheung Shui also has a raised shopping centreaccounting for about half the commercial space at the town centre, with the rest atgrade. The two-level district of Sheung Shui is just a small fraction, no more thanone-fifth, of the area covered by the Shatin town centre. Because of the extensive

Figure 4. The town centre of Shatin has four public levels, with most shopping at the third level.

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coverage of Shatin new-town centre and the unique, multiple-layered design,access to and within it is distinctly different from that in Sheung Shui. Shatin hasreserved a substantial area for a public open-space forum between its major civicbuildings, the library, the theatre and town hall. These are in turn linked to theinterior pedestrian mall, which is then linked to adjacent shopping floors inneighbouring estates. At the ground level, service roads separate the various urbanblocks of Shatin and connect with the controlled-access network. Servicing iscarried out using ramps andmultiple-level delivery bays, a major barrier to accessparticularly when approaching the town centre from the north. In Sheung Shui,there is a single, continuous raised centrewith all servicing at the edges andat grade. There is also only one vehicular level in SheungShui,whereas in Shatin amultiple-level garage and loading bay bring the trucks to the mall level. To reach the townhall or library from the public open space, one must climb 45 steps.

Shatin is often cited as a good example of a thriving shopping centre in alocation quite distant from the traditional shopping areas of Tsim Sha Tsui, Centraland Causeway Bay. Some of that success can surely be associated with theimplementation of a single-level, continuous commercial floor with directconnections to the busy railway and bus stations below. On the other hand, it ismore isolated from the ground than other town centres.

In conclusion, the vertical concepts for the two town centres are very similar,but the plan arrangements are quite different. Because of the greater size of Shatin,it was thought necessary to bring the service network into and under the shoppingconcourse. This added considerable distance to the walking paths from the accesspoints to the town centre and a clearer separation between the shopping level andthe ground level. In Sheung Shui, a greater number of stairways and escalatorslead directly to the ground, where more extensive walking areas line commercialfrontages and access organized bicycle parking facilities (Figure 5). Thesecommercial frontages extend into the commercial streets of the pre-existing townof Sheung Shui Tsuan.

Finally, the pedestrian system generally has two or more generating points atthe periphery of the estate. For reasons of control and outdoor space use, there is aperimeter wall with a limited number of egress points. These join acircumferential walkway with local crossing points at intersections on theroads. All such crossings are marked and most are controlled with lights. Thesystems are at grade until the pedestrian approaches the vicinity of the towncentre. A secondary elevated walkway comes up from grade in a number ofdifferent ways, to reach a secondary or primary commercial area two or threefloors above ground. This level then acts as an interchange layer between housingabove and services below, and as direct access to the railway station straddling therailway tracks. The prevailing idea was that, through a gradual verticaldisplacement, pedestrians could be brought to their destination using mostlyhuman power to get them through a vertical displacement of up to 12 metres.Escalators and elevators supplemented the non-mechanical system at key accesspoints or where flows were particularly concentrated and large. The designcharacteristics of these points also vary from town to town.

These design characteristics of the pedestrian system are uniform acrosstowns. The experience of walking may vary, however, as a function of the volumeof traffic in Shatin especially, or as the result of specific, micro-scale designfeatures at intersections. Throughout the towns, the pedestrian system is

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a completely connected network, intended to be used for the most part in relationto the local environment around individual estates.

The bicycle network in all towns follows the pedestrian one, rather than theroad network. Note that the motorized and non-motorized networks intersect in alimited number of key points, but do not overlap. From the time of the first-generation towns, the role of the bicycle was consciously considered, although notgiven high priority. In the case of Shatin, a comprehensive system of paths wascreated that encircled most of the large estates. Connections to the city centre andtrain station area, connections to all major recreational facilities and links fartherout to industrial estates characterize the plan. It was specifically expected thatalthough the great majority of trips would be by public carriers, there wouldcontinue to be a considerable number of bicycle users who would use therecreational cycle paths, access sports facilities and public areas on bicycle, orcommute to work (Yuncken Freeman Hong Kong, 1977).

There was no consensus on the appropriate role for non-motorized vehiclesamong the first-generation towns, however. Tuen Mun, in particular, has anincomplete cycle system, which emphasizes very local travel along withrecreational links. In Tsuen Wan, there is a bicycle path system, but it includesbridges over roads—a major disincentive to use.

Differences in Bicycle Use at the Town Centres

Approximately 97% of the 62 000 daily bicycle trips made in Hong Kong are madein the New Territories, a high proportion of these in Sheung Shui and Fanling(Hong Kong SAR, 2002). The rate at which bicycles are used to access the towncentre is 30 times greater in Sheung Shui than in Shatin. In Sheung Shui andFanling, the distribution of parked bicycles also reflects the relative populationdistributions within 3 km of the station. For example, at Sheung Shui station, thereare 2150 parked bicycles on the north side and 500 on the south side. At Fanlingstation, there are 1100 parked bicycles on the south side and 500 on the north, inproportion to the resident populations of each sector, strongly suggesting that thebicycle draw is in all directions from the station (Figure 2).

Figure 5. Combined pedestrian and bicycle rampover the KCR line at Sheung Shui provides directaccess to the town centre and a continuous bicyclepathway between estates on both sides of the

railway.

Figure 6. Bicycle parking at one residentialbuilding in City One estate, Shatin New Town.

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In Shatin, bicycle infrastructure is discontinuous: few crossings were plannedon the Shing Mun River, splitting the town lengthwise. Bicycle infrastructurenorth of the station is incomplete and there is no crossing of the station area itself.In Sheung Shui, it is possible to cross the railway and town centre on bicycle, whilethe system is complete in the town. The approved bicycle storage facilities are inthe parking lots outside the Shatin civic centre, where they remain largely unused.Bicycle parking under ramps and overhead structures at the level of the street is,on the other hand, well used. Most bicycles are chained to the pedestrian barrierslining the streets and in informal parking around trees. Most of the parking cannotbe accessed along dedicated bicycle paths and cyclists navigate the sidewalksbefore finding a quiet service road (Figures 1, 4).

In Sheung Shui, a two-way bicycle path runs parallel to the outer edges of thestation and at ground level. A very long ramp begins at ground level on a majorbicycle path on the south side and leads directly to the station level. The ramp inparticular has a continuous flow of cyclists and pedestrians. The facilities arelocated adjacent to the two bicycle paths and are overwhelmed. In Sheung Shuithe bicycle path on the north side of the station is encumbered with parkedbicycles that line the station side for half a kilometre. Cyclists actually havedifficulty getting through, although this is the most important destination forcyclists in the town. The railings lining the ramps for a distance of 200 m are linedwith locked bicycles.

The town centre of Shatin was conceived as a vertically separated system thatfavoured bus lines and walking. In Sheung Shui, a lower-density system withoutextensive servicing levels and housing on top made it possible to bring combinedpedestrian and bicycle circulation right to the doors of the railway station at twolevels. Cyclists could continue through a dedicated ramp from one side of theKCR line to the other. The shopping centre was conceived as a separate facilityadjacent to the station with its own servicing system. This ultimately made itrelatively easy to bring a bicycle to within close proximity of a shop, a bus or therailway station, while preserving separation of the modes. Although the planningauthority has considered integrating bicycling facilities with the street, this hasbeen ruled out for the time being (Hong Kong SAR, 2004). The relative differencein speed within a tightly arranged roadbed makes an integrated trafficenvironment a potentially dangerous situation.

More recent cycling design includes a solid, often green wall between thecyclist and the traffic. Previously, pedestrian and cycle paths often shared thesame right of way, with painted or tiled markings. As a result, there were morecrossings between pedestrians and cyclists as well as a tendency for pedestrians touse the cycle path rather than the sidewalk. Various designs, including staggeredbars or closely spaced bollards, are specified in Hong Kong regulations for dealingwith the requirement that the cyclist dismount at crossings with pedestrian paths.However, multiple dismounts with relatively short spurts of real speed are likelyto be quite frustrating for cyclists. In Sheung Shui, the cycle paths are also twinnedwith the pedestrian paths. More space was allocated for both paths in this town,with planters between the paths and the motor traffic. Barriers for dismountingare comparatively rare. These apparently minor differences in local design areimportant to the experience of the cyclist as well as to travel time.

It is evident in Shatin that most estates were well provided with bicycleswhen first occupied. There remain large numbers of bicycles locked and neverused beneath nearly every residential tower in estates both close to and at one to

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three kilometres from the centre (Figure 6). It seems likely that early intentions onthe part of the public to use Shatin’s quite extensive cycling network werethwarted by the barriers and rules at intersections. In Sheung Shui, more than 80%of the parked bicycles are in evident regular use (Figure 7). Regulations regardingthe parking facility are conspicuously displayed. Bulletin boards where othernotices relevant to the community can be found are often located near to theseposted regulations. Clearly, the facilities are intensively used.

In Tin Ping Estate in Sheung Shui, the ratio of parked bicycles to population is1:7, with some people electing to take their bicycles up the elevators to theirapartments. Walking distances from Tin Ping Estate to the station vary from 0.5 to1.0 km. While bicycles enter and leave the estate constantly, the bus station withinthe estate is usually deserted. Typical travel time for the bus is 15 minutes notincluding waiting time, while walking takes approximately 10 minutes, cyclingjust 5 minutes.

Overall, it must be concluded that relatively small differences in plan havehad a major impact on the daily travel patterns of the residents of these towns.Variable bicycle use is an easily observable outcome, but there may well be others.

Differences in Pedestrian Circulation

The housing blocks are the primary generator of pedestrian movement in the newtowns. With hundreds of units accessing one area on the ground, there is asustained flow of traffic through the estate grounds. This flow is then transferredto the walking system. In these new towns, pedestrian traffic out of an estate is atone or two points only. The result is substantial local traffic on the connected pathsimmediately fronting a series of estates. Pedestrians are more numerous thancyclists, with pedestrians spilling over into the cycling lane. Pedestrian trafficdiminishes noticeably upon approaching tunnels, confirming the intention tosupport walking trips within districts, rather than between districts. Such walkingenvironments are about 300 m in length.

There are a number of modifications in landscape design from Generation 1to 3 new towns that directly impinge on the pedestrian and cycling environment.Of interest is that Sheung Shui and Fanling have few stairway bridges, preferringslow ramping and taking advantage of topography wherever possible to effect the

Figure 7. Bicycle parking and parking rules at TinPing Estate, Sheung Shui.

Figure 8. A combined pedestrian and cyclistcrosswalk is provided on distributor roads inShatin. Note that crosswalks are not provided at

all intersections in this town.

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transition. While this was thought attractive to pedestrians, it also facilitatedbicycle use on the same tracks. Bicycles, on the other hand, are being used moreintensively beyond an area defined by a 300-metre radius from the station inShatin. Bicycle use in Sheung-Shui is well distributed and includes the immediatevicinity of the stations. In other words, there is no automatic transfer of modeswhen distances fall below a certain threshold. The underpass and long ramp areingenious solutions for cycling, since the gradient may not exceed a relativelycomfortable 3%. The pedestrian underpass follows the same ,3% gradient tolevel ground, before reaching the vicinity of the town centre shopping precinct.Two runs of stairs are located at frequent intervals, with escalators and elevators inselected locations. Ramps are generally not attractive to pedestrians who areconfronted with an apparently long walk in an enclosure.

The shopping centres at Shatin and Sheung Shui are both busy, thriving places.In Shatin, the busiest areas are in the shopping centre adjacent to the station, withtraffic dropping off dramatically toward the civic centre, for example (Figure 8).While residents in the surrounding complexes with bridge systems are walkingfrom their homes, these flows are tiny in comparison with the flows within thecorridors and spaces of the mall. Much of the traffic is evidently from bus and railtransfers. The open spaces in the surrounding districts are generally in heavy use,for all kinds of recreation. They aremost easily accessedon foot. The exception is thecycle way along the ShingMun channel, which offers an attractive, convenient andlong pathway right next to the water. While the planners are quick to underscorethat the townhas supported cycling in recent years largely as a recreational activity,no systematic support has come for connecting central places with bicycles (HongKong SAR, 2004a).

In Sheung Shui, the thriving upper-level market spills over to the street leveland continues into the adjacent market town of Sheung Shui Tsuen. The towncentres have slightly different vocations, with that in Sheung Shui serving theneeds of the town, while Shatin has a more regional shopping role with asubstantial number of more specialized goods stores.

The wider sidewalks, coupled with relatively low-volume bicycle traffic,make for a higher-quality walking environment. In this respect, one must considerclimate. Hong Kong is a tropical country with periods of intense solar energy.While tree cover is effective in attenuating the heat gain, space for roots must beallocated in the ground. When sufficient space is allocated at the roadside for treesand infrastructure, a large canopy can be created, as has happened in parts ofSheung Shui. This is less the case in Shatin, where the emphasis was clearly onhousing provision in estates, rather than on environmental design betweenestates. The circulation system was designed for speed and efficiency, followingvery much the principles executed in Cumbernauld, Scotland. In effect, in Shatin,while there are far more pedestrians than was anticipated, the general distributionamong bus and foot traffic and bus system patronage follows expectations for themost part.

Discussion

Hong Kong’s new towns are often cited by planners in China as a possible modelfor satellites and new cities on the mainland, althoughmost urban development inChina has taken quite a different form. The new-town model has been suggestedrecently because of its high density around a rail-based public transportation

384 J. Zacharias

system. However, in new urban development in China, road infrastructure ismore extensive and has greater capacity, with a larger vehicle fleet. There is awidely perceived need to find a stable balance in the transportation and land-usecharacteristics of emerging Chinese cities and urban extensions. So, the questionof the contribution of urban design to social and behavioural outcomes is entirelyrelevant in the present planning agenda in that country. The large proportion oftrips made in Hong Kong by public transportation, one of the highest in the world,in fact, is of course the result of a complex of regulations and controls that aredifficult to implement elsewhere; hence the relevance of urban design as a tool formanipulating certain outcomes.

Indetail, observable, aggregate behaviourof a relatively largeminority ofuserscan be linked to several key design decisions. It seems clear that these decisions aremanageable components of the urban design plan and have definite characteristicsand dimensions linked to the outcomes (Figures 9–11). The particular exampleused here was pedestrian and bicycle use in different-generation new towns, butthis could be extended to other aspects of such town experiments.

Figure 9. A footbridge over the Shing Mun Riverconnects housing estates on one side with thetown centre on the other. While heavy pedestriancirculation can be observed, there are few cyclists.

Figure 10. Parallel bicycle and pedestrian ways inSheung Shui. Note that the pedestrian walk isslightly raised with a planted verge both sides of

the pathway.

Figure 11. Bicycle facility at a Shing Mun River crossing in Shatin. Note the parallel walking and cycleways using a variety of markers and barriers to define the channels.

Generating Urban Lifestyle 385

Methodical and empirically based urban design is relatively undevelopedbecause there has been insufficient rigorous, comparative work. On the otherhand, significant advances have been made on the effectiveness of various urbanlandscape components, although these findings are not integrated into asystematic approach to the whole. In the same way as for micro-scaleinvestigation, it seems possible to examine the town plan as a whole, develop amethodology for investigation and build up the number of comparable cases.

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Geography, 23(1), pp. 57–84.Teklenburg, J. A. F., Timmermans, H. J. P. & Borgers, A. W. J. (1994) Changes in urban layout andpedestrian flows, in: Environmental Issues, Proceedings of Seminar A held at the PTRC Transport,Highways and Planning Summer Annual Meeting, University of Manchester Institute of Science andTechnology pp. 97–108 (Manchester: University of Manchester, Transport Research Centre).

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