Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 10. No.

3, 371386, October 2005

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 system that has been consciously developed in relation to a set of expected human behaviours. In the history of new towns, these expectations have been variously fullled, but with rare investigations into the design causes. This study of Hong Kong new towns examines differences in travel behaviour between one early town and two later ones. While the general 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 the movement system and local environmental design all explain the differences in local behaviour. Differences in the size of the town, distance from the town centre and public transportation alternatives are all relatively unimportant in explaining the differences in local travel behaviour of residents. These ndings point to the need for more empirical investigation into the effectiveness of urban design generally, and local environmental design in particular. Such ndings could be highly useful in the continuing development of new and satellite towns in China.

Introduction The literature on planned new towns in Europe and Asia has focused primarily on the organization of space and movement according to general principles of town operations (see, for example, Galantay, 1975). Plans in the form of threedimensional scale models not only allow a visualization of the environment but also embody expectations of daily travel patterns, lifestyle and the social character of public places. The innovative urban forms that have marked the new-town programmes of the UK, the Netherlands, France or Hong Kong, among others, assume the adoption of certain living patterns (see, for example, Holston, 1989). In most cases, such expectations are explicitly stated in planning documents. There are, however, relatively few cases of post-hoc studies of such towns to measure the effect on behaviour patterns of features of the urban design. The effects of pedestrianization on behaviour represent one example of accumulated evidence (Bishop, 1975; Bentham & Haynes, 1985; Gehl, 1987). Such studies tend to be on highly specic forms of activity, or else they examine the general community outcomes. Similarly, the layout of the movement system has been studied for its role in the distribution of pedestrians (Teklenburg et al., 1994; Hillier, 1996). In all
Correspondence Address: John Zacharias, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3G 1M8. Email: zachar@vax2.concordia.ca
1357-4809 Print/1469-9664 Online/05/030371-16 q 2005 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/13574800500297843

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these cases, the ndings do not relate directly enough to the physical form of the city to be of use in evaluating the effectiveness of specic features of urban design. These developments are useful in general evaluations of design but do not offer insights at the micro scale of street corners, buildings and spaces, where most design decisions are made. More specically, it is difcult to know what difference it would make to patterns of living to recongure open spaces or groups of buildings. The principal advantage of studying the effect of design on living patterns in a new town is the generally clear and consistent spatial organization in that context. In contrast, parts of cities that have developed over time and according to a mix of plans and unregulated growth are often very difcult to characterize in a formal sense for the purposes of empirical investigation. The new-town experiments of Hong Kong are an excellent laboratory for understanding the social and economic effects of large-scale design because of the highly controlled and centralized planning system and a set of design principles that remained largely unchanged for the 40 years of the building programme (Bristow, 1989). Such design continuity allows the researcher to evaluate the effect of a limited set of clear design changes. Arrangements of buildings on extensive plots of land, combined with community and recreational facilities, open space, storage and movement space, called for some explicit understanding of how the project would work. This mechanistic view of the layout and massing of the project also embodied clear evocations of daily life that are particularly explicit where the planners discuss modications in plans from one generation of towns to the next. Changes to later plans were often proposed to correct for a plan feature that contributed to some dysfunction, while perceived positive results reinforced the presence of features thought to contribute to those results. Human-use characteristics and experience of the plan feature entered into the chronological account of such town developments and can be found in abundance in the literature, in several languages and national contexts, including the authors cited in this article. What the literature has largely lacked is solid empirical evidence in support of an urban design feature or property of the urban fabric, relying largely on isolated case studies and qualitative assessments of individual casesthis paper is a modest step in the direction of supplying more empirical evidence. Hong Kongs development is of great interest as a designed environment with a high degree of control and replication across the town. Also, densities are sufciently high that effects are large and so relatively easy to discern. Hong Kongs planning also serves as an interesting laboratory for urban development in China. Until very recently, satellite and new-town development in China had taken quite a different form from that in Hong Kong, with a greater emphasis on road-based transportation, for example. Projected continued urbanization in China is an enormous project with very important implications for the environment and economy of the world. Cities in China have substantial autonomy to decide how they should grow (Zhu, 1999). The new-town movement of the late 20th century should be mined for its lessons about fundamental urban design issues of relevance to the urbanizing world of today. This paper looks at one set of behaviours that can be associated with urban design both at the town level and at the level of landscape detail. The different levels of use of bicycles in local travel in towns point to specic differences in layout and accessibility. The level of bicycle use in a town is the result of a collective 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 our case, different levels of bicycle use imply a conscious decision on the part of many individuals to use the designed infrastructure in a different way from the residents of another town having certain different design characteristics. This paper compares bicycle use as a function of urban design in Generation 1 and 3 towns in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Arguably, the overall layout, density and accessibility network characteristics of the two sets of towns are clearly more similar to each other than to any other new-town design one can point toeven Cumbernauld, a model for early new-town urban design in Hong Kong (Bristow, 1989). Between new towns in Hong Kong there are, nevertheless, specic differences in design that, for the most part, cannot be discerned in the outline plans. A very clear and detailed account of the expected transport outcome is available directly from the published plans for the new towns. Bristow (1989) provides a comprehensive list of outline plans for Generation 1 3 towns. The actual expected behaviour is also relatively simple to describe since the plan implies volume and direction of movement, modal splits and the associated travel distances. It remains to nd an appropriate way to describe the urban environment itself in such a way that it is useful for understanding different behaviours. If it is true, as we expect, that behaviour outcomes in relation to design require the inclusion of a number of variables, it is difcult to proceed to a single formalization at this time. Instead we use a generalized metric and relational description of the systems and space and relate these to observed behaviour. In our case the repetition of nearly identical conditions across the urban fabric and associated behaviour of large numbers of individuals over space provide strong support for the general design hypotheses, if not the detailed designs. The twin towns of Sheung Shui and Fanling along with the large town of Shatin are the sample town environments. These town designs are compared at three levels: (1) the distribution of densities and the transportation network; (2) the town centre and railway station designs; and (3) environmental design and local behaviour at estates at various distances from the town centre. The intention is to gauge the effect of differences in design between towns and between locations within towns. The infrastructure of the movement systems varies between towns in some obvious design elements. How detailed design affects use is looked at rst-hand with actual use and movement of certain important infrastructures such as crossing points. First we need to measure differences in behaviour across environments. Second, we need to consider what it is in the three-dimensional design of these towns that leads to such different behaviour. Along the way, we need to eliminate or account for other possible explanations for the travel patterns. A Comparison of the General Plans of the Two Towns The New Territories new towns are located in river valleysSheung Shui, Fanlingor around a harbour, often also a river mouthShatin. The bottom or levelled land was built up intensively in a highly integrated, high-density town where most people were expected to walk and use public transport. The road system was conceived as a high-efciency network of relatively narrow roads with 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 of community and recreational facilities, convenience shopping, as well as open space. These large estates covering several hectares were interspersed with major town facilities including hospitals, educational institutions, civic facilities and parks. Overall densities are, by world standards, very high at between 300 and 400 persons per hectare over the entire urban area. Estate densities of 1000 2000 persons/ha are more common than unusual, with lower densities reserved for sites at higher elevation, near major roads or adjacent to pre-existing villages. As a result of this high population density in a small area, large pedestrian ows are generated 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 lowerdensity 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 uninterrupted until today. Within this accepted pattern, there are interesting differences in approach 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 Sheung Shui Fanling with 239 300. Sheung Shui and Fanlinghereafter referred to as Sheung Shui unless specic reference is made to Fanlingcan be considered together 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 and 280 000 for the other two. Overall densities of the two towns are equivalent: Shatin has a density of 372 persons/ha over the entire developed urban area, while Sheung Shui has 310. The real difference in residential density between the towns is in reality much smaller, as evidenced by the regularity of the building footprints and heights and their relative presence in the whole (Figure 3). Shatin has a much larger 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 its northern neighbour. The contiguous urbanized area of Shatin is about 6 km long and 2 km wide on average, while Sheung Shui is 4.2 km long and just 1.4 km wide. 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 areas include original village development and new lower-density estates. Also shown is the distribution of parked bicycles in use.

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

would effectively cover more of Sheung Shui than of Shatin. However, even with an expected maximum walking distance of one kilometre, a minority of visitors to the town centre or nearest railway station could be expected to be on foot. This proportion could be further reduced through delay built into the movement system. All trafc is channelled along circumferential systems with infrequent connections to the city centre or to the outside. Extensive and effective barriers channel all pedestrian and cycle trafc to a very limited number of crossings of this fast road network. As a consequence, distances to the city centre vary considerably, as much a function of the network design as of actual metric distance. Walking distances vary considerably. For example, walking distances to the estates north of the town centre of Sheung Shui are between 1.4 and 1.7 times longer than the shortest straight-line distance, while estates lying close to the KowloonCanton Railway line have pedestrian and cycle paths marginally longer than the shortest straight-line distance. Specially designed barriers make it impossible or very difcult to short-circuit the system. The fact that the pedestrian system was highly circuitous with respect to destination was considered relatively unimportant because people were expected to 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

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housing within the town. This is one reason for the extensive cycle networks in nearly all the towns: it was reasoned that some people would elect to walk or cycle to their workplaces. However, it became apparent in the rst-generation towns with substantial industrial estates, like Tsuen Wan, that jobs could not be matched to residents. In addition, industrial restructuring occurred at regular intervals and residents of the town saw the entire Hong Kong metropolitan area as the job market. This unforeseen mobility of new-town residents placed considerable pressure on the rail-based public transport system and also changed travel patterns within the towns. The primary movement system into and out of the new town was the railwaythe double-tracked Kowloon Canton Railway (KCR) connecting Kowloon with Luohu in Shenzhen. The opportunity to exploit reasonably at land adjacent to the railway was also the impetus for rebuilding the stations as large-capacity exchange nodes for the towns. As a result, the great majority of trips within each town were to and from the town centre located adjacent to or on top of the railway. Bus routes almost all began and ended in the vicinity of the railway station. A distributor road network offered the opportunity to loop the bus lines between estates, providing a relatively fast service to the station vicinity while also maintaining a very frequent and regular service. Nevertheless, this layout is a compromise between the ability to use building land efciently and creating an efcient road system from a transport perspective. A more efcient public transport system would have been achieved in a hierarchical, radial system; as it is, the road system was designed largely to service the blocks themselves, with the blocks off-set and organic in plan, following the British model. Patterns of use and relative sizes of the associated land areas are the same in these townsa consequence of the uniform Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines as well as the extraordinary cohesiveness and durability of the estate development concept. The layouts of the two towns are idiosyncratic in the specic order and grouping of various estate blocks and their uses, but the sequencing, density and arrangement on the ground of the planned areas cannot be 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 two communities (Figures 1, 2). High-density urban blocks are interspersed with community uses and open space, with adjacent lower-density residential districts and nally industrial estates. Agricultural villages and traditional market towns that existed prior to the new towns have mostly been integrated into the town plans. It might be argued that social, ethnic and economic factors might help explain the differences in local travel behaviour in the two towns. In general, where they have been shown to exist, such differences have not proven to be very important to behaviour. In the case of Hong Kong, the population has become increasingly homogeneous. Variations in linguistic identity and income vary marginally across new towns (Lin, 2002). Therefore, socio-economic and demographic differences can be ruled out as an explanatory factor in local travel behaviour. In conclusion, it is difcult to see why the size of the community or the attendant land-use structure could have a measurable impact on local transport differences such as those observed. More specically, the general outline plan fails to 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 travel patterns. A Comparison of the Road Networks and the Public Bus System The road networks are laid out at approximately the same density, at 300 500metre intervals, most of the difference between these levels accounted for by geographic barriers. In Shatin, the network is deeper, as could be expected in a town more than twice the size of Sheung Shui. However, in Shatin, the road network is also more hierarchical, in part due to the presence of a greater number of major thoroughfares. In fact, there are three major dedicated, controlled-access roads running through Shatin. These roads often form a large loop with links onto the highways between towns. There is a secondary system to serve the estates that do not have direct access to the main distributor roads. There are no cul-de-sacs in the system except for access into public-utility facilities and parking garages. The distributor roads were designed for smooth and unsaturated ow and retain these characteristics today, even with a rise in the number of privately owned cars. The key questions in the rst instance concern the location of the pick-up points and the time of travel. The greater depth of the urban fabric, it could be argued, necessitated more separation and higher vehicle loadings. The distributor road system of Shatin is substantially busier than that in Sheung Shui. On the other hand, one might argue that this greater depth increases the level of service and so should make it more attractive to walk on local trips. In any event, the two towns differ somewhat in this important design element. The bus systems operate from dedicated stations under, beside or in the vicinity of the railway stations. There are separate taxi stations. All motor vehicles, upon exiting the loading areas, enter the distributor road system. Large public buses have stops on the distributor roads, while the smaller light or green buses have stations within estates or operate along small roads in the traditional communities. In Shatin, there are more double-decker buses on roads shared by two or more bus lines, while in Sheung Shui the buses tend to be of a standard size with fewer or just one line on an urban road. The entire road network is served by the bus system converging on the stations. The density of the bus network is virtually identical in the two towns, except for a higher density of service in the immediate vicinity of Shatin station. The frequency of service for individual lines varies between 3 and 20 minutes for local buses, but averages 13 minutes overall for both towns (bus-line data provided by Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), in 2003 at the authors request). In other words, there is no distinction to be made between the towns in terms of the level of public bus service. Given that the bus 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 are traversed in pedestrian and cycling underpasses, positioned centrally in the town with respect to the railway station. Separate pedestrian and cycling tracks with barriers and directional signs can be seen throughout both towns, in keeping with legislated design requirements (Hong Kong SAR, 2004b, 2004c). Because of the low

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gradients observedgenerally below 3%the infrastructure for the crossings is quite extensive. This is an additional reason for limiting the number of crossings of major roads, since land-use efciency is a high priority in land-strapped Hong Kong. There are also level crossings that invariably take a single trajectory across an intersection, timed to avoid conict with vehicular movement cycles. There may be as many as six separately signalled crossings at a major intersection. Where underpasses have been provided, controlled pedestrian crossings at adjacent intersections are in many cases not provided. In certain cases, previous crossings of this kind have been removed where they were thought to be redundant or underused. Pedestrian bridges are located mostly in the town centres. In Shatin there are districts immediately north-east of the town centre where a continuous web of raised walkways between and through buildings has been devised that connects at the same level with the high-density housing surrounding the station, the shopping centre and the civic centre. Nearly all the commercial space is at the third level above the street (Figure 4). Sheung Shui also has a raised shopping centre accounting for about half the commercial space at the town centre, with the rest at grade. The two-level district of Sheung Shui is just a small fraction, no more than one-fth, 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 has reserved a substantial area for a public open-space forum between its major civic buildings, the library, the theatre and town hall. These are in turn linked to the interior pedestrian mall, which is then linked to adjacent shopping oors in neighbouring estates. At the ground level, service roads separate the various urban blocks of Shatin and connect with the controlled-access network. Servicing is carried out using ramps and multiple-level delivery bays, a major barrier to access particularly when approaching the town centre from the north. In Sheung Shui, there is a single, continuous raised centre with all servicing at the edges and at grade . There is also only one vehicular level in Sheung Shui, whereas in Shatin a multiplelevel garage and loading bay bring the trucks to the mall level. To reach the town hall 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 a location quite distant from the traditional shopping areas of Tsim Sha Tsui, Central and Causeway Bay. Some of that success can surely be associated with the implementation of a single-level, continuous commercial oor with direct connections to the busy railway and bus stations below. On the other hand, it is more 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 shopping concourse. This added considerable distance to the walking paths from the access points to the town centre and a clearer separation between the shopping level and the ground level. In Sheung Shui, a greater number of stairways and escalators lead directly to the ground, where more extensive walking areas line commercial frontages and access organized bicycle parking facilities (Figure 5). These commercial frontages extend into the commercial streets of the pre-existing town of Sheung Shui Tsuan. Finally, the pedestrian system generally has two or more generating points at the periphery of the estate. For reasons of control and outdoor space use, there is a perimeter wall with a limited number of egress points. These join a circumferential walkway with local crossing points at intersections on the roads. All such crossings are marked and most are controlled with lights. The systems are at grade until the pedestrian approaches the vicinity of the town centre. A secondary elevated walkway comes up from grade in a number of different ways, to reach a secondary or primary commercial area two or three oors above ground. This level then acts as an interchange layer between housing above and services below, and as direct access to the railway station straddling the railway tracks. The prevailing idea was that, through a gradual vertical displacement, pedestrians could be brought to their destination using mostly human power to get them through a vertical displacement of up to 12 metres. Escalators and elevators supplemented the non-mechanical system at key access points or where ows were particularly concentrated and large. The design characteristics of these points also vary from town to town. These design characteristics of the pedestrian system are uniform across towns. The experience of walking may vary, however, as a function of the volume of trafc in Shatin especially, or as the result of specic, micro-scale design features at intersections. Throughout the towns, the pedestrian system is

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Figure 5. Combined pedestrian and bicycle ramp Figure 6. Bicycle parking at one residential over the KCR line at Sheung Shui provides direct building in City One estate, Shatin New Town. access to the town centre and a continuous bicycle pathway between estates on both sides of the railway.

a completely connected network, intended to be used for the most part in relation to the local environment around individual estates. The bicycle network in all towns follows the pedestrian one, rather than the road network. Note that the motorized and non-motorized networks intersect in a limited number of key points, but do not overlap. From the time of the rstgeneration towns, the role of the bicycle was consciously considered, although not given high priority. In the case of Shatin, a comprehensive system of paths was created that encircled most of the large estates. Connections to the city centre and train station area, connections to all major recreational facilities and links farther out to industrial estates characterize the plan. It was specically expected that although the great majority of trips would be by public carriers, there would continue to be a considerable number of bicycle users who would use the recreational cycle paths, access sports facilities and public areas on bicycle, or commute to work (Yuncken Freeman Hong Kong, 1977). There was no consensus on the appropriate role for non-motorized vehicles among the rst-generation towns, however. Tuen Mun, in particular, has an incomplete cycle system, which emphasizes very local travel along with recreational links. In Tsuen Wan, there is a bicycle path system, but it includes bridges over roadsa 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 made in 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 town centre is 30 times greater in Sheung Shui than in Shatin. In Sheung Shui and Fanling, the distribution of parked bicycles also reects the relative population distributions within 3 km of the station. For example, at Sheung Shui station, there are 2150 parked bicycles on the north side and 500 on the south side. At Fanling station, there are 1100 parked bicycles on the south side and 500 on the north, in proportion to the resident populations of each sector, strongly suggesting that the bicycle draw is in all directions from the station (Figure 2).

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In Shatin, bicycle infrastructure is discontinuous: few crossings were planned on the Shing Mun River, splitting the town lengthwise. Bicycle infrastructure north 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, while the system is complete in the town. The approved bicycle storage facilities are in the 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 barriers lining the streets and in informal parking around trees. Most of the parking cannot be accessed along dedicated bicycle paths and cyclists navigate the sidewalks before nding a quiet service road (Figures 1, 4). In Sheung Shui, a two-way bicycle path runs parallel to the outer edges of the station and at ground level. A very long ramp begins at ground level on a major bicycle path on the south side and leads directly to the station level. The ramp in particular has a continuous ow of cyclists and pedestrians. The facilities are located adjacent to the two bicycle paths and are overwhelmed. In Sheung Shui the bicycle path on the north side of the station is encumbered with parked bicycles that line the station side for half a kilometre. Cyclists actually have difculty getting through, although this is the most important destination for cyclists in the town. The railings lining the ramps for a distance of 200 m are lined with locked bicycles. The town centre of Shatin was conceived as a vertically separated system that favoured bus lines and walking. In Sheung Shui, a lower-density system without extensive servicing levels and housing on top made it possible to bring combined pedestrian and bicycle circulation right to the doors of the railway station at two levels. Cyclists could continue through a dedicated ramp from one side of the KCR line to the other. The shopping centre was conceived as a separate facility adjacent to the station with its own servicing system. This ultimately made it relatively easy to bring a bicycle to within close proximity of a shop, a bus or the railway station, while preserving separation of the modes. Although the planning authority has considered integrating bicycling facilities with the street, this has been ruled out for the time being (Hong Kong SAR, 2004). The relative difference in speed within a tightly arranged roadbed makes an integrated trafc environment a potentially dangerous situation. More recent cycling design includes a solid, often green wall between the cyclist and the trafc. Previously, pedestrian and cycle paths often shared the same right of way, with painted or tiled markings. As a result, there were more crossings between pedestrians and cyclists as well as a tendency for pedestrians to use the cycle path rather than the sidewalk. Various designs, including staggered bars or closely spaced bollards, are specied in Hong Kong regulations for dealing with the requirement that the cyclist dismount at crossings with pedestrian paths. However, multiple dismounts with relatively short spurts of real speed are likely to be quite frustrating for cyclists. In Sheung Shui, the cycle paths are also twinned with the pedestrian paths. More space was allocated for both paths in this town, with planters between the paths and the motor trafc. Barriers for dismounting are comparatively rare. These apparently minor differences in local design are important to the experience of the cyclist as well as to travel time. It is evident in Shatin that most estates were well provided with bicycles when rst occupied. There remain large numbers of bicycles locked and never used beneath nearly every residential tower in estates both close to and at one to

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Figure 7. Bicycle parking and parking rules at Tin Figure 8. A combined pedestrian and cyclist Ping Estate, Sheung Shui. crosswalk is provided on distributor roads in Shatin. Note that crosswalks are not provided at all intersections in this town.

three kilometres from the centre (Figure 6). It seems likely that early intentions on the part of the public to use Shatins quite extensive cycling network were thwarted 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 regarding the parking facility are conspicuously displayed. Bulletin boards where other notices relevant to the community can be found are often located near to these posted regulations. Clearly, the facilities are intensively used. In Tin Ping Estate in Sheung Shui, the ratio of parked bicycles to population is 1:7, with some people electing to take their bicycles up the elevators to their apartments. Walking distances from Tin Ping Estate to the station vary from 0.5 to 1.0 km. While bicycles enter and leave the estate constantly, the bus station within the estate is usually deserted. Typical travel time for the bus is 15 minutes not including waiting time, while walking takes approximately 10 minutes, cycling just 5 minutes. Overall, it must be concluded that relatively small differences in plan have had 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 new towns. With hundreds of units accessing one area on the ground, there is a sustained ow of trafc through the estate grounds. This ow is then transferred to the walking system. In these new towns, pedestrian trafc out of an estate is at one or two points only. The result is substantial local trafc on the connected paths immediately fronting a series of estates. Pedestrians are more numerous than cyclists, with pedestrians spilling over into the cycling lane. Pedestrian trafc diminishes noticeably upon approaching tunnels, conrming the intention to support walking trips within districts, rather than between districts. Such walking environments are about 300 m in length. There are a number of modications in landscape design from Generation 1 to 3 new towns that directly impinge on the pedestrian and cycling environment. Of interest is that Sheung Shui and Fanling have few stairway bridges, preferring slow ramping and taking advantage of topography wherever possible to effect the

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transition. While this was thought attractive to pedestrians, it also facilitated bicycle use on the same tracks. Bicycles, on the other hand, are being used more intensively beyond an area dened by a 300-metre radius from the station in Shatin. Bicycle use in Sheung-Shui is well distributed and includes the immediate vicinity of the stations. In other words, there is no automatic transfer of modes when distances fall below a certain threshold. The underpass and long ramp are ingenious solutions for cycling, since the gradient may not exceed a relatively comfortable 3%. The pedestrian underpass follows the same , 3% gradient to level ground, before reaching the vicinity of the town centre shopping precinct. Two runs of stairs are located at frequent intervals, with escalators and elevators in selected locations. Ramps are generally not attractive to pedestrians who are confronted 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, with trafc dropping off dramatically toward the civic centre, for example (Figure 8). While residents in the surrounding complexes with bridge systems are walking from their homes, these ows are tiny in comparison with the ows within the corridors and spaces of the mall. Much of the trafc is evidently from bus and rail transfers. The open spaces in the surrounding districts are generally in heavy use, for all kinds of recreation. They are most easily accessed on foot. The exception is the cycle way along the Shing Mun channel, which offers an attractive, convenient and long pathway right next to the water. While the planners are quick to underscore that the town has supported cycling in recent years largely as a recreational activity, no systematic support has come for connecting central places with bicycles (Hong Kong SAR, 2004a). In Sheung Shui, the thriving upper-level market spills over to the street level and continues into the adjacent market town of Sheung Shui Tsuen. The town centres have slightly different vocations, with that in Sheung Shui serving the needs of the town, while Shatin has a more regional shopping role with a substantial number of more specialized goods stores. The wider sidewalks, coupled with relatively low-volume bicycle trafc, make for a higher-quality walking environment. In this respect, one must consider climate. 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 be allocated in the ground. When sufcient space is allocated at the roadside for trees and infrastructure, a large canopy can be created, as has happened in parts of Sheung Shui. This is less the case in Shatin, where the emphasis was clearly on housing provision in estates, rather than on environmental design between estates. The circulation system was designed for speed and efciency, following very much the principles executed in Cumbernauld, Scotland. In effect, in Shatin, while there are far more pedestrians than was anticipated, the general distribution among bus and foot trafc and bus system patronage follows expectations for the most part. Discussion Hong Kongs new towns are often cited by planners in China as a possible model for satellites and new cities on the mainland, although most urban development in China has taken quite a different form. The new-town model has been suggested recently because of its high density around a rail-based public transportation

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Figure 9. A footbridge over the Shing Mun River connects housing estates on one side with the town centre on the other. While heavy pedestrian circulation can be observed, there are few cyclists.

Figure 10. Parallel bicycle and pedestrian ways in Sheung Shui. Note that the pedestrian walk is slightly 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 cycle ways using a variety of markers and barriers to dene the channels.

system. However, in new urban development in China, road infrastructure is more extensive and has greater capacity, with a larger vehicle eet. There is a widely perceived need to nd a stable balance in the transportation and land-use characteristics of emerging Chinese cities and urban extensions. So, the question of the contribution of urban design to social and behavioural outcomes is entirely relevant in the present planning agenda in that country. The large proportion of trips 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 are difcult to implement elsewhere; hence the relevance of urban design as a tool for manipulating certain outcomes. In detail, observable, aggregate behaviour of a relatively large minority of users can be linked to several key design decisions. It seems clear that these decisions are manageable components of the urban design plan and have denite characteristics and dimensions linked to the outcomes (Figures 9 11). The particular example used here was pedestrian and bicycle use in different-generation new towns, but this could be extended to other aspects of such town experiments.

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Methodical and empirically based urban design is relatively undeveloped because there has been insufcient rigorous, comparative work. On the other hand, signicant advances have been made on the effectiveness of various urban landscape components, although these ndings are not integrated into a systematic approach to the whole. In the same way as for micro-scale investigation, it seems possible to examine the town plan as a whole, develop a methodology for investigation and build up the number of comparable cases. References
Bentham, C. G. & Haynes, R. M. (1985) The effects of vehicular trafc restriction on pedestrian numbers, Trafc Engineering + Control, 26, p. 210. Bishop, D. (1975) User response to a foot street, Town Planning Review, 46(1), pp. 3146. Bristow, R. (1989) Hong Kongs New Towns: A Selective Review (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press). Galantay, E. Y. (1975) New Towns: Antiquity to the Present (New York: G. Braziller). Gehl, J. (1987) Life between Buildings (Livet mellem husene, 1980) (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold). Hillier, B. (1996) Space is the Machine: A Congurational Theory of Architecture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Holston, J. (1989) The Modernist City: An Anthropological Critique of Brazilia (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press). Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2002) Travel Characteristics Survey (Hong Kong SAR, Transport Department). Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2004a) Cycling Study. Final Report (Hong Kong SAR, Transport Department). Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2004b) Fanling/Sheung Shui Outline Zoning Plan.S/FSS/12 (Hong kong SAR). Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2004c) Sha Tin Outline Zoning Plan. S/ST/20 (Hong kong SAR). Lin, G. C. S. (2002) Transnationalism and the geography of (sub)ethnicity in Hong Kong, Urban Geography, 23(1), pp. 57 84. Teklenburg, J. A. F., Timmermans, H. J. P. & Borgers, A. W. J. (1994) Changes in urban layout and pedestrian ows, in: Environmental Issues, Proceedings of Seminar A held at the PTRC Transport, Highways and Planning Summer Annual Meeting, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology pp. 97108 (Manchester: University of Manchester, Transport Research Centre). Yuncken Freeman Hong Kong (1977) Sha Tin New Town Master Landscape Plan: Phase One Report (2 Volumes) (Hong Kong New Territories Development Department). Zhu, J. (1999) The Transition of Chinas Urban Development: From Plan-Controlled to Market-Led (Westport, CT: Praeger).