The hilly hinderland of Kowloon Peninsula is outside the catchment coverage by MTR for pedestrians but potentially within the coverage by bicycles, as long as a new type of connection hub allows bicycles to be efficiently engaged as a new option constituting mixed-mode mass transport. The new typology shall take part in the discussion on how urban utility cycling in Metro Areas in Hong Kong can be re-admitted and re-encouraged in future transport development and planning, seizing the trend of urban redevelopment, brownfield site utilization, and potential revision in building codes.<\/span><\/p>\n Gradient limits illustration for ascending and descending pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2 WHAT<\/b><\/p>\n Knowledge and order on lands in relation to bicycles can be consolidated as an idea of \u201ccycle space\u201d, like how \u201cairspace\u201d was defined. [<\/span>1]<\/span> Yet its differentiation from other \u201cspaces\u201d is ambiguous. There are occasions in urban planning when bicycle infrastructure became part of the pedestrianization movement, but there are cases cyclists have to dismount, being subsidiary to pedestrians. [<\/span>2]<\/span> Cycling is strictly forbidden in footpaths in Hong Kong under the old law. [<\/span>3]<\/span> Having wheels, cyclists share the roads with vehicles in many cities, and are bound to traffic laws and prone to dangers due to speed difference, making themselves also subsidiary to vehicles.<\/span><\/p>\n Since the late 20th century, cycle space had been dedicated to separated cycleways and facilities in cities through new town development, urban design and segregation in pedestrianized spaces, conversions from highways, redevelopment of brownfield sites and abandoned railways, as well as excavations. [<\/span>4 5 6 7 8]<\/span> As it tends to reduce vehicular traffic, it is widely advocated and standardized as a green transportation, [<\/span>9]<\/span> yet its infrastructural meaning as discourse had not been prioritized until the term \u201cCycle Superhighway\u201d was introduced as strategic bicycle routes serving the Greater London, Greater Copenhagen and intercity links in Germany and Netherlands. [<\/span>10]<\/span><\/p>\n The thesis will investigate how the aforesaid idea and system can be applied into the built urban realm of Hong Kong by enhancing the \u201ctunnel-bridge compound\u201d typology and the \u201cgroundless\u201d spatial concept which already exists in Hong Kong. [<\/span>11]<\/span><\/p>\n Adam Frampton, Clara Wong, and Jonathan Solomon, Cities without Ground: A Hong Kong Guidebook (Rafael, CA: Oro Editions, 2012). 108.<\/span><\/p>\n Digital photo. Accessed December 14, 2016. http:\/\/www.fhshh.com\/upload\/1\/a5\/1a5e93375b83c095.png. <\/p>\n 3. WHY<\/b><\/p>\n Despite a \u201ccyclehighway\u201d system connecting new towns currently under construction in Hong Kong, the authority still refrains from encouraging cycling through built Metro Areas, where half of Hong Kong population is housed, for reasons concerning laws, topography, traffic and complement by existing public transport systems. [<\/span>12]<\/span> The thesis will tackle the physical constraints and explore exceptions.<\/span><\/p>\n There had been an urge to reconsider a holistic bicycle policy in Hong Kong, which can be assisted by new infrastructure. Bike connections and parking facilities are being stipulated in the scoring criteria in LEED requirements on buildings in the US, [<\/span>13]<\/span> which would be spread to Hong Kong when globalized. Besides, \u201cHong Kong 2030+\u201d planning studies target to address the growing number of buildings reaching their structural life-span and pending redevelopment. [<\/span>14]<\/span> The two issues would be interlinked in future urban transformations.<\/span><\/p>\n Outside the pedestrian catchment area 500m away from MTR stations, the hinderland of Kowloon Peninsula is selected as the study area. It is the remaining void to similar projects in the Metro Areas, such as \u201cHarbourfront Cycleway\u201d on Hong Kong Island, and the proposed networks and facilities in Tsuen Wan and Kai Tak which had been pioneers as they are commonly on reclaimed land for easier implementation. [<\/span>15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22]\u00a0<\/span>The existing slopes, brownfield sites and open spaces are the most readily available spaces for the execution.<\/span><\/p>\n BikeMaps. Accessed September 22, 2016. https:\/\/bikemaps.org\/@22.3124829,114.1888046,14z.<\/span> <\/p>\n 4. HOW<\/b><\/p>\n Research and Mapping<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For the site context, existing infrastructure, hurdles and spaces will be the key subject of study. The urban qualities of the areas indeed remain certain potential to establish bicycle linkages, joining the missing links. There are some geographical features for further study:<\/span><\/p>\n Design<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dependent upon the result of mapping, the site would be one section of the proposed network, and a prototype which can demonstrate the whole system. Such space shall primarily work as connector, and secondly a cluster of auxiliary facilities, creating a new place to the public to achieve further metaphysical meanings.<\/span><\/p>\n Parameters over design strategy include integration to terrains, slopes, safety against vehicular traffic, convenience to cyclists and pedestrians and integration to built or new spaces. Proximity to public transport access including MTR and bus terminals would be a factor to enhance transit-oriented development strategy of Hong Kong.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Http:\/\/cycle-space.com\/author\/steven\/. “Green Maps.” |. 2016. Accessed November 07, 2016. http:\/\/cycle-space.com\/green-map\/.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cStreets Colored by Slope in San Francisco, CA, USA.\u201d Map. The Steeps Of San Francisco In Search Of The City\u2019s Steepest Street. November 10, 2009. Accessed September 22, 2016. http:\/\/www.datapointed.net\/media\/2010\/08\/sf_slope_big.jpg.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n NOTES<\/b><\/p>\n BIBLIOGRAPHY<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"20161215_001_mod\"](\"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/20161215_001_MOD-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"onlyif-citieswithoutground-book4-1296x926\"](\"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/OnlyIf-CitiesWithoutGround-book4-1296x926-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"1a5e93375b83c095\"](\"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/1a5e93375b83c095-150x150.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/span>CycloCable in Trondheim, Norway, currently the only cyclist escalating system in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"bikemap_001s\"](\"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/bikemap_001s-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Traces of Bike Movement in Kowloon Peninsula<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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![\"sf_slope_big\"](\"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/sf_slope_big-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/span>The ongoing new town cycle track development in Hong Kong.<\/span><\/li>\n
\n<\/span>Study and implementation on further categorization of cycle spaces in London.<\/span><\/li>\n
\n<\/span>Nelson Street Cycleway, Auckland designed by Monk Mackenzie, NZIA, RIBA.<\/span><\/li>\n
\n<\/span>Atlanta BeltLine, Atlanta.<\/span><\/li>\n
\n<\/span>Privatized underground cycle parking machine in Japan.<\/span><\/li>\n
\n<\/span>Contract No. TD 100\/2002<\/span><\/li>\n
\n<\/span>Kwun Tong District Council Discussion Paper<\/span><\/li>\n
\n<\/span>GPS tracking of Bike Movement in Kowloon Peninsula.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
\n
1 THESIS STATEMENT<\/strong><\/del><\/li>\nThe thesis will explore remaining capacity of the urban topography and multi-level urban configurations to interact, to enable district-crossing bike network across the built urban areas, particularly in Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong.<\/span><\/del><\/li>\nThe thesis will identify topographical and infrastructural hurdles obstructing bike circulation in the developed urban area, which contains opportunities for engagement instead of ignorance. Such engagement shall involve spatial injection to re-route and introduce bike traffic and bike activities without diminishing resource-distribution volume and capacity of existing channels for existing transport means and pedestrian movement, while such ignorance refers to official description and general impression over the impossibility for urban cycling in Hong Kong Metro Areas, which shall be doubted and evaluated.<\/span><\/del><\/li>\n2 WHAT<\/strong><\/del><\/li>\nThe project aims at proposing a place as well as a designed space to inject a new infrastructure for bikes across Kowloon Peninsula, with the aim to reconnect the urban fabric available to district-crossing cyclists to enhance bike-commuting culture in Hong Kong.<\/span><\/del><\/li>\nParameters over design strategy include the integration to hilly terrains, slopes, safety against vehicular traffic, convenience to cyclists and pedestrians, distance from public transport access including MTR and bus terminals, and the accessibility to existing land uses.<\/span><\/del><\/li>\nDependent upon the result of mapping, the site would be a place which is currently unfavorable to bikes, before the insertion of a new space. Such space shall primarily work as connector, and secondly a cluster of auxiliary facilities, creating a new place to the public.<\/span><\/del><\/li>\n3. WHY<\/strong><\/del><\/li>\nBACKGROUND<\/b><\/del><\/li>\nDespite precedences of injection of bike infrastructure and policies pioneered in cities in Europe and the US, and followed all around the world, with the rationales and discourses behind such movements related to the post-industrial demand and New Urbanism concepts, [1-5] Hong Kong falls behind such trend regarding the improvement of cycling environment inside developed Metro Areas (Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and Tsuen Wan as defined by planning authorities). Even in new towns, the planning and civil engineering authorities have fairly negative attitudes towards urban cycling, as revealed by the inclusion of cycle track networks with auxiliary facilities solely for leisure purpose in every new town since the 1970s. [6] <\/span><\/del><\/li>\nOnly after responding to advocacy campaigns and growing needs for cycling as both leisure and commuting, some recent new urban development plans abutting the harbour in Metro Areas have planned to include cycle tracks. For the Hong Kong Island, the \u2018Harbourfront Cycleway\u2019 had been advocated by the public as the prime route connecting the Island, [7] and being considered and implemented by the government by stages, firstly along Central Waterfront, Wan Chai Waterfront and Boardwalk beneath the Island East Corridor. [8-10][11][12] On the opposite side of the harbour, the networks in Tsuen Wan and Kai Tak (including Kwun Tong) are under detailed design [13][14], leaving Kowloon Peninsula the remaining areas not yet discussed, except closed loops for bikes inside parks. [15]<\/span><\/del><\/li>\n