Planning for an elderly-friendly community : a study on street-level walkability

Abstract

The increasing longevity has led to a steady growth of elderly residents in Hong Kong and accommodating the surging greying population is one of the key issues on the policy agenda. World Health Organization (WHO) forecasted that Hong Kong will rank 5thamong the world’s cities with 40% of the territory population aging65 or above by 2050. Hence, the notion of “active ageing” arouse in hopes to assist older persons to remain active in their daily lives. One of the urbanism principles that contributes to active ageing is creating a walkable community. Existing studies and policies rarely focus on the micro-walkability and it is also often overlooked by urban designers. This study investigates how the elderly populations residing in Wong Tai Sin perceive their walking environment through a conducting questionnaire surveys and informal interview. A street-level walkability audit was carried out to measure the walkability of three commonly-visited destinations by elderly persons, namely: Wong Tai Sin Temple, Tai Shing Street Market and Wong Tai Sin Plaza Market. Wong Tai Sin was chosen as the study area because it had the highest percentage of elderly people of 17% in the territory. Among the 78 survey respondents, 75% of them managed to walk least 20 minutes every day, suggesting the majority of them have a good walking habit. Respondents were most satisfied with the “land-use mix” of the community; whilst least satisfied with the “neighbourhood aesthetics”. There are some prominent problems of the walking environment, including the inadequate provision of sitting places and handrails and the difficulties for elderly persons’ road-crossing. The walkability audit revealed that the walking environments surrounding the three destinations are just about average, with Wong Tai Sin Plaza having the best performance. Four major findings can be drawn based on observation and the collected information: i) the deeply-entrenched notion of car-oriented planning, ii) the ease for long-distance movement is greater than that of short-haul movement, iii) the layered setting decreases the choice of walking and iv) the development trend has provided connections that are usually more time-consuming. Recommendations on improving walkability for the elderly people include: prioritising pedestrian network in the same hierarchical order as public transportation and roads and improving the pedestrian facilities within a neighbourhood.