Assessing and improving work-related walkability in the central business district of Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong is a city with compact, high-density and mixed land uses supported by a highly efficient public transportation network. People in Hong Kong have stronger walking habits than 45 other countries by taking an average of 6,880 steps per day. The urban development pattern and walking habits give well-established foundations to promote a walkable environment. In recent years, there is considerable interest in capturing a range of transport, social, environmental, economic and health benefits from enhancing walking as a wide mobility option to improve liveability. Strategies of enhancing walkability, the extent to which the built environment is walking-friendly, in Hong Kong, have included covering “first mile” and “ last mile” by walking when accessing transport locations and also initiative to turn the Central district as a walkable Central Business District (CBD). Improvement of the last mile walking environment and CBD are significant to improve the existing urban conditions, quality of life of commuters and encouragement to more walking activities. More walkable environment and increase of walking would further help relieve Central’s existing urban challenges, such as traffic congestion, pollution and overcrowding in the street environment. To achieve walkability enhancement, assessment of the pedestrian environment is needed to comprehensively evaluate and identify shortcomings of the attributes of the walking environment in Central. This study develops a focus in the last-mile connectivity (LMC) pedestrian environment taken by the dominant trip purpose of CBD, walking-to-work, which links public transport stations and car parking facilities with major commercial destinations in three main core areas of Central, namely the Harbourfront area, Central Business Core and Sheung Wan Business Core. Taking reference to past walkability research and local environment context, a walkability audit framework with clear, objective and measurable indicators, while feasible to be applied, across different environments, have been developed. Performance of environmental attributes from the dimensions of safety, convenience and comfort are assessed in a segment-based way. International case analysis on three cities, namely Singapore, London and Melbourne, are drawn to shed lights to walkability-enhancement measures to Hong Kong. Appraisal of the walking segments based on assessment results is made and guides the identification of underperformed walkability aspects in the study areas. This research identifies, in terms of overall walkability, Sheung Wan Business Core underperforms in all of the three dimensions compared to other areas and needs improvements on them. In Central Business Core, comfort improvements should be stepped up. The performance of the Harbourfront area is rather evenly satisfactory. Underperformed aspects across different areas identified have included: separation of traffic and signalized facilities in safety dimension; wayfinding aids, obstruction, waiting time (red signal time) and gradient in convenience dimension; effective pavement width and shelter in comfort dimension. Regarding these, detailed recommendations have been drawn on how to make improvements and priority areas that should be targeted at. The seven recommendations are (1) buffer extension along street-level routes, (2) improvement of crossing and signalling facilities, (3) provision of sheltered walkway network, (4) improvement on barrier-free access, (5) more comprehensive and legible wayfinding systems, (6) improvement on the management of loading/ unloading activities and (7) decluttering and widening walkways. Moreover, recommendations on planning and design are given for more pedestrian-friendly CBDs in the future. The assessment and recommendations have been deliberated to the dominant walking-to-work trips and their most direct and short-in-distance routes from a walkability audit framework of the Central’s context. It is believed that the prioritisation of improvement areas and implementation of enhancement measures may bring major improvements on achieving the enhancement of LMC walking environment in Central CBD.