SHAPING UP FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
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of land that were originally acquired for completely different purposes, as well as on sites that have been sold for large-scale development.
The Housing Authority has a momentum that will not be exhausted at the end of the century. It will continually want to update and improve on its older estates. It has no ambition to take over everything from private enterprise yet it operates on a scale that can keep private enterprise on its toes. The new Land Development Corporation gives some hope that slum areas will not be allowed to spread because of the problems facing private enterprise in redevelopment.
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These three engines of development – the Housing Authority, private enterprise and the Land Development Corporation - operate in an environment created by the city planners. The first two have a track record and the third holds promise. There is no doubt that new urban landscapes of increasingly pleasing aspect can be created.
It is less certain that old areas can be renewed with the same success. The slums on either side of the elevated highway between the Kai Tak and the Cross Harbour Tunnel are not the only decaying buildings that do not seem to yield to new development. New initiatives need to be found to make possible the demolition of such slums and their replacement by something that will be acceptable in the next century. The rebuilding of Hong Kong that took place in post-war years was fuelled by the returns to be gained by producing extra accommodation on underdeveloped sites. As those buildings decay in the next century the authorities will not be looking for even greater densities of occupation on sites. Incen- - tives will have to be devised to stimulate the building of more spacious places to live and
work in.
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An essential requirement for growth is the ability to move around. Transport is an area of planning that is more advanced than many and this too is a story of change. In the early sixties there was no knowledge of movement in Hong Kong. Roads engineers mended roads but built few new ones. The police managed traffic literally. For years the only traffic lights in Hong Kong were at the junction of Des Voeux Road and Pedder Street. Bus companies ran things on their own and made so much money that the government was able to charge a purchase tax of 25 per cent on every bus ticket as a royalty. The buses were packed out from dawn to late at night and had to carry not only conductors to collect the fares, but strong men at the entrances to pull shut the gates and fight off excess passengers. In 1961, a committee was set up to look at public transport. I was made secretary of it not because I knew anything about transport but then an administrative officer could turn his hand to anything couldn't he? From the outset emphasis was given to finding out what was happening and what the future would hold. First there was a public transport survey, then a plan, then it became clear that roads alone would not be enough. The MTR followed and all the time the authorities were looking ahead more comprehensively. The latest comprehensive transport study was published in 1989 and takes us up to 2001 with a look even further ahead.
Nor is all this surveying and planning just a paper exercise. Building is winning. Road speeds are actually increasing and public transport improving in comfort. The look to the future is incorporated in the airport studies with a network of new roads and tunnels aimed not only at maintaining easy movement in Hong Kong but at the growing working and recreational travel to China. In the early years of the next decade new roads will connect Lantau port to western Hong Kong Island and a completely new Route 3 will connect our city with the delta region through Shenzhen.