Sleepless in HONG KONG

WHEN RESIDENTS COMPLAINED ABOUT NOISE FROM A PEDESTRIANISED STREET, IT WAS REOPENED TO CARS. WAS THERE A BETTER WAY?

Hong Kong’s Mong Kok area — “busy corner” in Cantonese — is a sea of people, shops and chaotic energy in the heart of the city’s most densely populated district.

Within that, Sai Yeung Choi Street South was the street that never slept. After it was pedestrianised in 2000, the only islands in the sea of people were buskers, singers and dancers, all competing to drown each other out. Commonly known as “noisy street”, you could hear it long before you saw it.

Complaints from residents led the government to restrict the pedestrianization scheme to weekends and public holidays. Finally, this summer, it was scrapped entirely; after more than 1,000 noise complaints, motor vehicles were allowed back 24-7.

With the buskers gone, vehicles are now the noisiest things on the street. The number of people seems the same, though — they’re just squashed onto the pavement.

“It had become a sort of poor man’s nightclub where competing performers, dancers and karaoke singers were blasting their music at 90-100 decibels,” says Carine Lai, senior researcher of Civic Exchange, an independent Hong Kong public policy think tank. “To make things worse, there were residential buildings upstairs, so people were complaining of sleeplessness and psychological distress.”

But Lai and others feel that closing the pedestrianised section of Mong Kok is not a long-term solution and does not address the root issue of street management problems in Hong Kong.

“We have suggested different modes of street management policy such as performance licensing and sound equipment control guidelines. The government needs to devise a holistic plan, instead of piecemeal approaches towards street management,” says Kathy Ip, the secretary general of Hong Kong Public Space Initiative.

Pedestrian networks

Hong Kong is renowned for its pedestrian networks — at street level, below ground and above ground.

However, they are not always enjoyable for pedestrians to use, say some city planners. “If you just want to move from one place to the other, I guess Hong Kong could be seen as quite an efficient city,” says Mee Kam Ng, director of the urban studies programme at Chinese University of Hong Kong. “But I think we [leave] a lot to be desired in terms of the walking environment.”

Ng cites rapid urban development and the city’s many hills as obstacles. “Hong Kong is now over-compact and it’s becoming extreme. The priority [for developers] is to build as many units as possible, rather than creating a pleasant environment for people to live in and enjoy. If we continue to have an urban form that is so unfriendly and so unnatural for our movement and enjoyment it will have a much larger toll on people’s well-being.”

“Pedestrians always come as a second thought during development,” adds Ip. “For a better living environment in Hong Kong, the needs of pedestrians should be the priority over the traffic.”

Although it has been slow to come, there are some signs of change. Last year the government announced its commitment to strengthening Hong Kong’s position as a world-class walkable city.

So far, projects have focused on ensuring the majority of future residences and workplaces are situated within walking distance of transportation nodes, services and other amenities, which will be connected by pedestrian-friendly or pedestrian-only walking environments such as precincts and station squares. Areas to benefit from this include the Kai Tak development area, Kwun Tong North and Hung Shui Kiu.

The retrofitting of densely developed urban areas has also been a priority. A number of quick-win pedestrian improvement measures — such as footpath widening and pedestrian signals — have been installed in the Kowloon Bay and Kwun Tong business areas. The government also worked with Transport for London on a HK$3m (Dh1.41 million) project to display street signs showing maps and walking guides in the city’s bustling Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district.

Pedestrians always come as a second thought during development ways to manage it ... For a better living environment in Hong Kong, the needs of pedestrians should be the priority over the traffic.”

Kathy Ip | Hong Kong Public Space Initiative