GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

GEOG1002
Hong Kong: Land,
People and Resources
Lecture 7
Mobility and transportation
Dr Ka Ho Tsoi

To recall
from
Lecture 2 …

Dr Ka Ho Tsoi 1
GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

To recall from Lecture 6 …

Key questions

• What are the key

components of a transport
system?
• What is the transport
development in Hong Kong?
• How do people travel in
Hong Kong?
• What are the current major
transportation issues in
Hong Kong?

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Key concepts

• The Transport System (demand,

node and networks)
• Mobility and Accessibility

The transport system

A transport system is designed to facilitate
the movements of passengers, freight, and
information. It can be conceptualized as
the set of relationships between :

(i) Nodes: where movements are

originating, ending, and transiting
(intermediacy), entry or exit points in a
transport system.

(ii) Networks: Composed of a set of

linkages expressing the connectivity
between places and the capacity to
handle passenger or cargo volumes.
Modified from Rodrigue (2020)

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The transport system

(iii) Demand: A derived function for the

(i)
mobility of people, freight, and
information for a variety of
socioeconomic activities.

Derived demand refers to the demand for

any goods or services, which results from
demand from other related goods, and
services.

But is it necessarily true?

Modified from Rodrigue (2020)

Mobility Vs Accessibility

Mobility: The ease of movement of a passenger or a

unit of freight.

Accessibility: The measure of the capacity of a

location to be reached by or to reach different locations.

• What are the main differences?

• Why does it matter?

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Transportation in
Hong Kong

• Infrastructure
• Vehicles (flows)
• Travel behaviour

The Annual Traffic

Census
• In 1983, a comprehensive review of the
Annual Traffic Census system commenced,
which comprised a survey on the usage of
the Annual Traffic Census report.
• The pilot scheme covered Hong Kong
Island only and was repeated in the years
1987 and 1988 to maintain continuity of the
traffic flow data collected in 1986.
• The key topics cover distribution of roads,
counting stations, traffic flow statistics,
public transport statistics, number of
vehicles (registered and licensed), and
cross-harbour traffic.

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Infrastructure

• Railway length
• Road length
• Road hierarchy

Infrastructure

• The total length of trafficable roads in Hong

Road length Kong is 2,219.47 km in 2022.

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Road hierarchy
• Expressways: Connecting the main centres of population and activities and are
designated under the Road Traffic Ordinance. Expressways are not confined to an urban
or rural area but could traverse through both areas.
• Trunk roads: For longer-distance traffic movements between main centres of population
and activities
• Primary distributor roads: For traffic between centres within the main urban areas
forming a primary road network
• Distributor roads: For traffic between the primary road network and districts within the
main urban areas;
• Local distributor roads: Giving direct access from district distributor roads to buildings
and land within districts.

Expressways
in Hong Kong

Transport Department

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Infrastructure

Road length by type

Transport Department (2023)

Vehicles

Vehicles

• Number of registered and licensed

vehicles
• Traffic flow and its composition

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Vehicles

Registered Vs Licensed

• Registration, which is normally a one-off matter, means giving the vehicle

a registration mark and putting it into its appropriate class, e.g. private car,
light goods vehicle, etc.
• Licensing, which is annually or four-monthly, conveys the right for a
vehicle to be driven on a road. A local motor vehicle agent usually applies
for registration and licensing of a vehicle on behalf of its client. However, if
a person imports a vehicle, he has to do it himself

Vehicles
Registered vehicles Licensed vehicles

Number of
registered
and licensed
vehicles

Transport Department (2023)

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Vehicles

Traffic Flow

Traffic surveys (cordon-based)

• Inductive Loop Detector System
• Rubber Tube Detector System

Major indicators
• Average annual daily traffic (AADT)
• Traffic composition
• Occupancy rate
• Temporal variations (hourly, weekly,
monthly, yearly)

Vehicles

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Vehicles

Vehicles

An example traffic
cordon

Harcourt Rd (from Tamar St to

Arsenal St)

• Cordon No.: 1001

• Road type: Urban Trunk Road
• Layout

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Vehicles

Average annual daily traffic (hourly)

Eastbound

Hour

Transport Department (2023)

Vehicles

Traffic composition and occupancy rate

Transport Department (2023)

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Vehicles

Annual and monthly trend of AADT

Month Year

Transport Department (2023)

Travel behaviour

Where are the origins

and destinations?

When is the departure

and arrival?

How do people travel?

Why do we travel?

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Travel behaviour

Travel Characteristics
Survey (TCS)

• The Consultancy Study defined the scope and data

requirements of the TCS 2011 for transport planning
and modelling purposes.
• It was primarily a data collection exercise. The
ultimate aim of which was to collect relevant up-to-
date travel characteristics data.
• TCS 2011 database will facilitate the planning of
transport facilities and services in future territorial
and sub-regional transport and planning studies.

Travel behaviour

A common way of reporting travel

1700

1720

1740

A trip can consist of several trip legs.

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Travel behaviour

Relevance of space and time in travel

Travel
Time movement Time Location

1830 0800 Home

1800
1730 0800-0900 MTR
1700
0900-1700 HKU

1700-1730 MTR

Pick up
0900 1730-1800
delivery
0800
1800-1830 MTR
Space
Home Pick up HKU
1830 Home
delivery
(Mong Kok)

Travel behaviour

Relevance of space and time in travel

Travel
Time movement

1830 Time
Mandatory activity Location
1700 Before 0800 Home
Prism
1400 Discretionary activity
0800-0900 MTR
Lunch
1200 0900-1200 HKU
1200-1400 Lunch
0900
0800 1400-1700 HKU
Space 1700-1830 MTR
Home HKU
After 1830 Home

Wanchai Cyberport

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Travel behaviour

Indicators
• Number of trips (mechanized
vs non-mechanized)
• Trip rate (per person)
Travel • Number of boardings

Characteristics • Temporal variations

• Journey time
• Active transport
• Car ownership
• Value of time (VoT)

Travel behaviour

Total number of
mechanised trips
• The average total number of
mechanised trips made by Hong
Kong residents on a weekday was
estimated to be 12,606,000.
• The average mechanised trip rate on
a weekday for a Hong Kong resident
was estimated at 1.83 trips per
person, nearly the same as the 1.82
trips per person obtained from TCS
2002.
• More than half of the trips are home-
based work (HBW) and home-based Transport Department (2014)
school (HBS).

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Travel behaviour

Number of boardings
• The proportion of total boardings by
private vehicles was 12%.
• 88% of the boardings were made by
public transport, as compared to 89% in
TCS 2002.
• The most popular transport mode was
rail, which accounted for 30% of the total
boardings for all trip purposes.
• The next most popular mode taken was
franchised bus (27%).
Transport Department (2014)

Travel behaviour

Temporal variation of
daily mechanized trips
• Clear temporal variations of trip patterns
• The overall peak hours for mechanised
trips (on a weekday) were found to be 8:00
– 9:00 a.m. in the morning and 6:00 – 7:00
p.m. in the evening.
• 41% of the home-to-work trips occurred in
the morning peak hour at 8:00 – 9:00 a.m.
• 34% of the work-to-home trips occurred in
the evening peak hour at 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Transport Department (2014)

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Travel behaviour

Journey time
• Over half (51%) of the mechanised trips
were made within half an hour and 90%
made within an hour for people to travel
from their trip origins to destinations.
• The mean journey time was 40 minutes.
• HBW trips with a mean journey time of 47
minutes generally took the longest
journey time.
• The private vehicle / taxi trips on average
took a longer journey time.
Transport Department (2014)

Travel behaviour

Walking trips
• A form of active transport
• The average journey time for walk-only
trips was 8 minutes.
• Across different trip purposes, the
average journey time for HBO walk
trips was the longest (9 minutes).
• For more significant walk-only trips
which took more than 10 minutes, the
peak hours occurred at 7:00 – 8:00
a.m. in the morning and 3:00 – 4:00
p.m. in the afternoon, which accounted
for 11% and 10% respectively of the
Transport Department (2014)
daily trips.

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Travel behaviour

Walking time
• The walking times involved in walk trip
legs to access and interchange between
mechanised modes of transport are quite
short, with over 75% of these trip legs
taking only 5 minutes or less walking time.
• The walk trip legs for interchanging
between mechanised transport modes
had an even shorter walking time, with
close to 85% of them completed within 5
minutes.
Transport Department (2014)

Travel behaviour

Cycling trips

• A form of active transport

• 80% of the cycling trips were “Cycling only”. In
other words, 20% was “Cycling trips involving
interchange with other mechanised transport
modes”. In general, HBO trips accounted for
the largest proportion (45%) of the daily
cycling trips, followed by HBW trips (43%).
• 65% of the “Cycling-only” trips and 82% of the
cycling trip legs connecting with other
mechanised modes were made within the
same district. The highest concentrations of
cycling trips were found in new towns like
Fanling/Sheung Shui, Yuen Long, Tai Po, Sha
Tin, Tuen Mun and Rural NWNT. Transport Department (2014)

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Travel behaviour

Car ownership
• 14.4% of the households in Hong
Kong had private cars available for
use, among which 11.4% had more
than 1 car.
• The mean availability was 1.15 cars
per household with private cars
available, amounting to a total of
391,800 private cars.
• 9.7% of the private cars concerned
were company-owned.
Transport Department (2014)

Travel behaviour

Value of time
• A measure of the amount of money trip-makers are
willing to trade off with unit time saving.
• It serves as a key parameter in the transport model to
simulate the behaviour of trip-makers in making choices
when they are faced with different transport alternatives,
usually characterised by different journey time and cost.
• Comparing between the 2002 and 2011, there is an
overall increase in the behavioural VoT by about 16% in
real terms
• In comparison, the behavioural VoTs for non-private
vehicle available household members showed higher
growth than the private vehicle-available household
members.
Transport Department (2014)

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

What are the current issues?

Spatial mismatch of % of working population working in the

same district in 2021
population and employment Islands
Sai Kung
Sha Tin
Tai Po
North
Yuen Long
Tuen Mun
Tsuen Wan
District

Kwai Tsing
Wong Tai Sin
Kowloon City
Sham Shui Po
Yau Tsim Mong
Southern
Eastern
Wan Chai
Central and Western
0 10 20 30 40 50
(%)
From Lecture 6… jobs-housing balance From Lecture 2… self-containment

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Inter-TPU travel for commuting

Commuting time by TPU

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Traffic congestion

What is traffic congestion?

• Traffic congestion occurs when the demand
for road space rises to a level at which
traffic speed decreases.
• On a single section of road, it happens
when the number of vehicles using it
approaches the carrying capacity.
• As traffic speeds fall below their free
flowing, journey times lengthen, increasing
the travel time costs borne by each user.
• It has been a major negative externality
from the transport sector.
• A wide range of impacts include increasing
travel time and costs, poor roadside air
quality, increasing energy consumption,
worsening wellbeing

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Causes of congestion
Five categories of recurrent causes of road traffic
congestion
(a) limited scope for more road transport infrastructure
(b) excessive number of vehicles
(c) competing use of road space
(d) management and enforcement issues
(e) road works

Problem:
Congestion

Transport Advisory Committee (2014)

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Problem:
Congestion

Transport Advisory Committee (2014)

How do we
feel about
congestion?

Transport Advisory Committee (2014)

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Real-time travel analysis in 2023…

Travel time per 10 km

TomTom: Hong Kong Traffic

Real-time travel analysis in 2023…

TomTom: Hong Kong Traffic

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Real-time travel analysis in 2023…

TomTom: Hong Kong Traffic

Ways to alleviate traffic

congestion

The Government has been tackling road traffic

congestion following a three-pronged
approach which comprises
• improving transport infrastructure
(railway infrastructure, improving pedestrian
facilities, and strategic road projects)
• expanding and improving public
transport system (encourage modal shift,
service enhancement, and rationalization of
services)
• managing road use (traffic management,
bus-only lanes, and speed map panels)
Transport Advisory Committee (2014)

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Future
considerations

Transport Department (2014)

Future
considerations
• Changes of travel
behaviour
• Improving information and
communication technology
• Work-from-home
arrangement
• Traffic distribution among
the three tunnels
• Electronic road pricing
• A holistic urban planning
Loo and Huang (2022)

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Summary

• Concepts of transport network

• Mobility Vs Accessibility
• Analysis of traffic flow and vehicle
ownership
• Travel characteristics in Hong
Kong
• Causes and impacts of traffic
congestion in Hong Kong

Related courses in
Department of Geography

• GEOG2018 Transport Geography

• GEOG2144 The Evolution of Transport
Policy in Hong Kong
• GEOG3420 Transport and the Society

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GEOG1002 Hong Kong: Land, People and Resources 30/10/2023

Useful references

• Transport Advisory Committee (2014) Report

on Study of Road Traffic Congestion in Hong
Kong. Hong Kong: Transport Advisory
Committee.
• Transport Department (2014) Travel
Characteristics Survey 2011: Final Report.
Hong Kong: Transport Department.
• Transport Department (2023) Annual Traffic
Digest. Hong Kong: Transport Department.
• Transport Department (2023) Annual Traffic
Census. Hong Kong: Transport Department.

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