Manpower! Walking in Hong Kong (Ep. 10)

Initial broadcast - 8:00 pm Friday September 18, 2015

To listen to the show's initial broadcast, please visit RTHK's DAB 31.

To listen to the show after the initial broadcast, please visit the archive here. (Skip to 7m30s!)

Walking (and cycling!) is one of the greenest forms of transport. You use your own manpower to get around! And every day in Hong Kong as millions of people in Hong Kong move from one place to another, we rely on a complex network of pathways, footbridges, and public transportation. We sit down with Southern District Councillor and Founder/CEO of Designing Hong Kong Paul Zimmerman to discuss how this network is developed and what some problems and solutions are to improving Hong Kong's street for pedestrians. Paul also discusses how designing a good network for us to move around depends on different government departments, and he discusses some underlying problems with our government's management that are holding us back from innovation and solving some of our city's design issues.

There are many challenges facing pedestrians. In addition to the up-and-down-up-and-down elevation changes necessary for crossing major roads over footbridges, our streets are crowded. 

Pedestrians squeeze by between a shop and busy street (Queen's Rd. Central)

What sadly ends up happening: Pedestrians spill over into street and on-coming traffic! 

We discuss how you have to re-think priorities not based on who has money, but by simply counting heads (a kind of public space democracy!). But until government departments cooperate better, it's difficult to make innovative solutions and an overall better city design.

Please get involved!

If there are dangerous intersections that you know about or areas that need improvement, you can report them to www.missinglinks.hk. Paul talked about how it can sometimes take 10 years to get changes implemented, while other times for "standard" solutions, the improvements can happen quickly.