Enhancing the walking experience of skywalk system as a public space in high densitycity of Hong Kong

Abstract

In modern cities, transportation interventions are primarily geared towards getting people to work efficiently, and finer aspects with regards to walkability had not received enough attention. Especially, walking in work-related trips is the inadequacy of walkability in downtown CBD where there is a high concentration of office workers who demand short walking trips. But in the small but highly developed city-state of Hong Kong, an enhanced pedestrianization scheme with shelter and cooling is proposed to address the walkability needs with respect to Hong Kong’s hot, humid and rainy tropical weather. The pedestrianization scheme segregating pedestrians from traffic combines with building and footbridge called Skywalk System. Compare to other Skywalk System cities, Hong Kong was done well in this system. This study attempts to meet the factors for comprehensive skywalk research by examining skywalk systems. With the discussion of CBD in Hong Kong and the summary of Hong Kong urban economic background, this study makes an objective analysis on the formation and feasibility of skywalk system in Kong Hong CBD. Through getting the walking experience in Hong Kong to find out the walking space in the Hong Kong Skywalk System is both leisure walking and walking as a means of traveling. The study states that the skywalk system is effective in the land of high-intensity development and heavy traffic but it is not a solution to all the circumstance, and it is only used under some special conditions.