Generating Urban Lifestyle: The Case of Hong Kong New-Town Design and Local Travel Behaviour

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 fulfilled, 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 findings point to the need for more empirical investigation into the effectiveness of urban design generally, and local environmental design in particular. Such findings could be highly useful in the continuing development of new and satellite towns in China.