HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
12 July 1989
香港立法局
一九八九年七月十二日
98
The chief concept in the planning of our new towns has always been that they should be self-contained in almost all aspects. People are expected to live in relatively close distances to where they can obtain work as well as education for their children and be close to other public and recreational amenities to cut down travelling time. This concept is fine up to a point.
Firstly, people do not always behave in the manner that planners expect them to. Work opportunities considered in the development of new towns have almost always meant industries. But as young people become more educated, more and more choose careers in the business sectors. Since business has always been concentrated in the main urban areas of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, people who live in new towns have to travel daily long distances to work places of their choice. Serious considerations should therefore be given to relocate business districts to the new towns.
Secondly, because of the assumption that factories have to be close to where people live, over the years enormous environmental problems have been created and we now have to find ways to solve these problems. It may well be that future industrial zones will be located further away from residential zones to enhance living environments, and this will have impact on our transport strategy.
In the urban areas, besides suggested positive restriction of road usage and car ownerships, there is as yet no land planning proposal to deal with increasing traffic congestions in these areas. In these areas, despite the Metroplan currently being prepared and even with the implementation of all the proposals suggested in the Green Paper up to the year 2001, traffic speed, as indicated in the Second Comprehensive Transport Study Report, will still be slower than 1986 levels. The construction of more and better trunk roads connecting the new towns to the urban areas, whilst serving the need for more efficient long distance commuting, often exacerbate traffic congestions in the urban area.
Since little can be done to urban local roads, there has to be more imaginative urban planning solutions to reduce vehicular traffic and its associated fume and noise pollutions. One such solution successfully tried in some European cities which we can adopt is the concept of pedestrianization of pockets of our urban area where commercial activities are most intensive. Large carparks, which can be underground can be planned on the fringes of these nicely landscaped and paved pedestrianized areas. Pollution-free public transports would be allowed to intrude into selected routes of these areas for the convenience of some people who are not prepared to walk. Limited access at
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