Geographical variability of transit-oriented development in Hong Kong

Abstract

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is a management strategy that offers sustainable answers to urban development at different levels and reduces the heavy automobile dependence. In dealing with transport-related issues, TOD encourages the use of transit for better sustainability. The number of railway patronage is the best index used to measure the success of TOD. However, TOD may also generate many short local car trips within the neighbourhood. The main research objective of the thesis is to investigate the factors that influence the three major transit modes of transportation within the neighbourhood. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to guide development policies that create more sustainable transport.

Although many studies have looked at TOD residents’ travel behaviour at a regional or city level, most of them were based on North American cities. TOD neighbourhoods are assumed to have similar impacts on travel behaviour as they are generalized. Local trips within the TOD are less understood.

A neighbourhood level analysis is used to explore residents’ travel behaviours in 60 neighbourhoods of Hong Kong delimited by a five-hundred-meters buffer area around each MTR station. An in-depth statistical analysis of the transit shares of 60 TOD and non-TOD neighbourhoods is made. This research design highlights the influence of TOD neighbourhoods in the use of transit for trips in different local communities, but most importantly it also identifies variability within the TOD neighbourhoods. Built environment’s variables, which may influence the modes of transportation, are selected. Principal component analysis is used to reduce the number of variables to 5 latent factors. Those factors are identified as specific characteristics of the built environment. In order to understand the relationship between the extracted factors and the use of transit modes, regressions are conducted. The results confirm that a dense economic urban area and the station integration to other transportation networks could explain residents’ travel behaviour for metro by 32%. It also shows that those two factors together with a mostly residential area with large families also explained 47% of the residents’ travel behaviour for walking. Variability of the bus' modal shares is not explained by any factor of the built environment used in the regression model. Buses have been identified as being more important in non-TOD neighbourhoods and a less sustainable mode of transportation than walking and metro.

This study provides important guidelines for TOD development to further promote walking and the use of metro. The variability of TOD neighbourhoods in Hong Kong and, ultimately, its influence on people’s choice of sustainable transportation mode is demonstrated. This study brings a better understanding of TOD in the Asian context and how to increase its sustainable aspect through transportation. The findings of this study can be used by policy makers.