To drive or to park : factors affecting the use of park-and-ride facilities in Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong, together with other major cities, has faced severe traffic congestion problem. A wide range of transport management measures have been implemented to tackle such problem. Among these measures, Park-and-Ride facilities have been adopted to curb the number of cars entering urban area, thereby alleviating the problem of traffic congestion. Park-and-Wide facilities have a long history in US and UK, but it was until the 1980s that the first Park-and-Ride facility was introduced in Hong Kong.

In other cities, studies on the use of Park-and-Ride facilities have been conducted to understand the characteristics of users and their trips, together with identification of important factors affecting the use of Park-and-Ride facilities. However, few studies of this kind are available in Hong Kong. The last study in early 2000s solely focused in the pilot scheme in Sheung Shui. To fill this research gap, Sai Kung District will be selected as the case study area so as to enrich the understanding of the users and the trips using Park-and-Ride facilities geographically. Questionnaire survey, together with conditional logit model, will be utilized to analyze the data in a qualitative and quantitative manner. Findings could cast some light on existing characteristics of the users and their trips, as well as some recommendations on future provision of Park-and-Ride facilities.