Bike City HK, Bicycle as 'stim' in the Metropolis

BIKE CITY HONG KONG The Bicycle as ‘Stim’ in the Metropolis 1

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Currently, the rapid development in Asian cities is receiving great attention across the globe. Large urban agglomeration in Asia includes Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong that are generally called as ‘Metropolis’. Partially as a result of the rapid economic development of these cities and their ongoing expansion on urban development and increasingly high-density living environment, it requires a lot of travel through the urban district, which increase the demands on mobility. The set up of massive rapid transit in the Asian metropolis aims to provide a kind of fast and efficient means of transportation.

Metro system in Hong Kong has been set up as ‘rapid transit’ to provide a quick and effective ‘bypass’ transport through urban fields. Yet when this kind of ‘bypass’ transportation system becomes the major form of transportation in the urban environment, the movement of human is changed from a continuous and fluid network to a more discontinuous point-to-point connection. According to Lars Lerup (2000), ‘Stim and Dross’, the space surrounded the ‘points’ is ‘stim’ which valued urban space in the perception of a person, and the space between the ‘points’ can be defined as ‘drosscape’ that hidden for a person to experience.

The purposes of this research aims to investigate the potential for adding a new form of mobility – bicycle to the metropolis which function as ‘stim’ to current phenomenon of ‘drosscape’ in Hong Kong. Furthermore we will investigate how this ‘stim’ layer change the speed and form as well as impacting the relationships and understanding of urban spaces psychologically. Thus, the result will be combined with the studies on the biking condition in Hong Kong and design strategies of bicycle city in the world in order to carry out scenarios of imaginations.

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Source: http://rhinohide.wordpress.com/ 4

With nearly half of the world’s population living in cities, density is increasingly becoming the global condition. The denser we make our cities, the more we can sustain ecosystems.

Massive Change, Bruce Mau 2004 5

A result of rapid urban development.

Hypermega cities emerged all around the world in 21 centry.

This we call the

Metropolis >>> Megalopolis

Source: http://maps.google.com/ 6

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Due to ever expanding populations, we need massive space to accomodate all the different infrastructure required to support our urban population and keep the efficiency of mobility.

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The high demand for transit, the overload of transportation, the air conditioner of car - all of theses bring pollution to the city, making the streets unhabitable.

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The experience of transport becomes only transport but nothing else. An experience of the uninteresting, wasted, undervalue, ignored.

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Due to the problems of transportation and requirments for mobility. A metro system was set up as

‘rapid transit’

A public transport system which can carry large numbers of people.

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Between a Field to Field, what we have is a totally enclosed space that transits people from point to point. The urban fields inbetween we know nothing about.

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the Metropolitan

Urbanism, Mobility, and Growth Hong Kong as a Metropolis Bicycle-city as a solution Theoretical Backup — Stim and Dross

Mental layer Perception form Bicycle as “Stim” Layer Perception of Urban Space Relationship to Urban Space

Bicycle City Culture in Hong Kong Bicycle as City traffic Practical Strategies

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Ways of the Future Matrix of Scenarios Transformation of Mental Map

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“Bicycles are not only transportation but a way of seeing the city. They help people feel more connected to where they work, live and visit. In that sense, bicycles are urban renewal at a very human level.� The Japan Times

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In the past century, due to the rapid growth of the global economy, large urban developments have greatly affected urbanism worldwide. This kind of mega-city we now commonly call the metropolis is defined as “A very large and densely populated industrial and commercial city.” Since the late-20 Century, the frenetic energy of mega-cities in Asia has dominated global urbanisation. It is expected that by 2025, 16 of the world’s predicted 27 megacities will be in Asia. Thus if current trends prevail, current problems that are a result of hyper-urbanism in Asia will continue to be huge challenges for the future development of every Asian city.

Due to high population densities and the ever-growing sizes of urban areas in Asia, the need and desire for urban mobility has seen a massive increase in order to support the growing numbers of the urban population transiting through urban districts.

In order to maintain an efficient transportation system, subways have been set up as a form of rapid transit systems, defined as “a public transport system which can carry large numbers of people and which uses a dedicated fixed track.” Examples include the MTR in Hong Kong, MRT in Singapore. As a form of rapid transit, the primary aim for these systems is to provide quick, efficient transportation via a “bypass” underground rather than going through the urban fabric. This kind of underground transit can be fast and efficient, yet at the same time, this form of bypass transit reduces the perceptual and psychological experience of moving through the city and results in a fragmented disconnected understanding of the urban fabric.

Understanding the practical benefits as well as perceptual problems created by subway systems, this project has studied how we can bring people back to the street to transit within the urban 26

area while achieving quicker, more efficient mobility compared with that of walking. When considering the requirements of highmobility in the current urban life, the bicycle has been proved as a successful means of transportation in many Northern and Western Europe cities as well as in North America. As Timothy Beatley states, “bicycles are a significant and legitimate mobility option and an increasingly important part of the transportation mix there.� Notably most of the successful bicycle friendly cities in Europe are not considered as a metropolis, and the hyper scale of urban area in metropolis may not truly suitable to apply the traditional example of bicycle-cities in Europe. However, there are still some metropolises around the world that have a mature cycling culture, for example, New York, Tokyo and in China cities such as Beijing, and Shanghai. There is a great potential to develop bicycle-city in Asian cities in order to solve/improve the problems emerge in the metropolitan.

In this research, we will try to study how is the bicycle-city concept can work in a metropolis and how it affects or improves the perceptual understanding of urban space by the changing the transit speed while also providing a quick, efficient answer to the needs of urban mobility, all while providing social and health benefits. By using Hong Kong as a demonstration for possibilities in Asian Cities, the study is divided into two main paths of research, one that is more theoretically focused, and one that is more physically concerned. These two aspects of research are complemented by a series of interviews with bicycle users and case studies of bicycle-city planning.

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Urbanism Mobility Growth 28

Between 2007 and 2050, the living population in urban areas is projected to gain 3.1 billion, and most of that increase will be in Asia. The requirement of high-mobility transportation systems is needed in order to maintain a certain level of efficient urban transport. But as the need for mobility increases, the demands of massive infrastructure systems become one of the major considerations for planning a city. In addition to the important role it plays in the planning of a mega-city, transportation exerts a significant influence on the urban sustainability as it is one of the largest users of energy as well as a major contributor to air pollution. A rapid transit system links up city fields provisionally which reduces the energy used by cars. According to the aims of rapid transit and increased urban mobility, metro systems have been widely applied in many metropolises across Asia.

On the other hand, metro or subway systems linking urban fields are primarily found in underground space characterized by highvelocity travel speeds. This kind of transportation is provided only to meet the requirements for an efficient functional mode of transport; the perceptual and physiological experiences of transiting through urban areas have been ignored. Under the situation of metro transport, the effective area by the metro station in the city can be defined by the active space of a person’s perception. The urban area outside the active space will be hard to be understood by a person. In most situations, the discontinuous experience of travelling through urban areas will affect the understanding of a city.

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Aprodicio A. Laquian Emeritus Professor of Human Settlement Quote ‘Beyond Metropolis’ 1.Demographic variables 2.Financial resources and commercial-industrial structure 3.The primacy and dominance of a city relative to other cities in the country and region 4.The city’s political role as a national capital or a regional development hub 5.The administrative and political unity or fragmentation of the city-region 6.The administrative and political mechanisms that have been used historically for planning and governance 7.The relative adequacy or inadequacy of urban services, educational and cultural amenities, and infrastructure to meet the needs of the people.

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As a metropolis, Hong Kong also sets up a rapid transit system – the MTR (Mass Transit Railway) as a major means of public transportation. In the urban areas of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, most of the MTR rails go underground or along highways. Therefore, the experience of passing through urban district created by MTR is one of an isolated enclosed indoor space with a high velocity, which does not allow for people to form a coherent image of urban space.

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Bicycle-city In order to improve the current situation of “understanding nothing between urban fields”, based on the ‘bypass’ form of transportation created by rapid transit; to encourage the use of ‘go through’ forms of transportation to increase connections and improve the relationship between the urban environment and users; we propose the bicycle as a solution and new layer of infrastructure in the metropolis.

Compared to other current ‘go through’ forms of transportation, the “ bicycle as one of the most effective 32

as a solution uses of a road system has been pointed out in terms of [many] different aspects� including less energy use compared to walking, fast speed for short journeys in busy urban traffic, and reduced space usage when compare to the other form of transport. Furthermore, in most bicycle-friendly cities, the image of cycling has becomes an ideal form of exercise representing a healthy and cool lifestyle and therefore has the potential for social, environmental, and public health impacts.

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Theoretical

Lars Lerup Architecural Professor

Quote ‘Stim and Dross: Rethinking the metropolis� stim As in stimulation, Stimme: voice, Stimmung: ambience dross 1.Waste product or impurities formed on the surface of molten metal during smelting. 2.Worthless stuff as opposed to valuables or values. Dregs.

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Background Due to the ongoing rapid urban development throughout the world, a new form of urban space – the hyper-urbanised mega-city – has emerged in the last century. “The New global city is now defined with zones of urban, suburban, rural, leisure, and even “natural” precincts – all managed, all parts of a design system.” In response to the sprawl of a contemporary city with so many zones or districts occurring in one massive urban organism, rapid transit systems, as mentioned before, have been developed to organize and maintain urban mobility and order. Again while these systems are highly efficient, they are as noted earlier primarily a ‘bypass’ form, which results in a mutational change in people’s perceptions and psychological understanding of the urban environment.

Confronted with a scale of city never before witnessed, the perceptual habits of a human subject have been challenged, resulting in a mutation in the understanding of urban space due to this new ‘hyperspace’ . “[Hyperspace] has finally succeeded in transcending the capacities of the individual human body to locate itself, to organize its immediate surroundings perceptually, and cognitively to map its position in a mappable external world.” source: http://www.megacities.nl/lecture_8/foto%20Lars%20Lerup.jpg

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‘Stim and Dross’ Lars Lerup

The theory of by has acted a primary theoretical framework for this study to understand and analyse the urban space formed by various forms of transportation. According to the theory, space is dominated by motion, time, and event. ‘Stim’ is a space as value, as locus of events, as genius loci, points of stimulation. On the other side, ‘Dross’ is a space ignored, undervalued the unfortunate economic residue of the metropolitan machine. As define and locate ‘Stim and Dross’ within the psychological sense of urban space, to apply ‘Stim and Dross’ to describe the phenomenon of Metro Urbanism, space made active by a transportation node can be treated as ‘Stim’ and is characterised by being readily accessible for analysis and understanding. Spaces that uninflected by the nodes can be defined as ‘Dross’, or that which is ignored by the nodes, and is characterised by its inaccessibility, leaving one only able to form a very rough memory and even hidden from the understanding of human eyes.

Significantly the theory of Stim and Dross reveals that the metro system creates a different layer (or field) beyond the original city network, at times connected and at others in stark contrast with the ground network. Together they can be understood as “two ecologies, modalities (speeds) of circulation and appearance” of urban infrastructure. These two ecologies create two different visions of understanding of space by a delaminating of speed and space. Or we can say they create two different images of a city in different fields. source: http://books.google.com.hk/

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Under the MTR Transportation, in the eyes of one person travelling around the city, ‘Stim’ is the accessible area from the stations to get on and off. The effective area of the stations can be counted as 500 meters from the stations.

Other urban spaces between the journeys that are just ‘bypass’ are ‘Dross’ which cannot be understood by a person.

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Sabine Pauli,

Architect and Instructor at the City University of Hong Kong Q: Where have you been for your bicycle trip in China?

P: I had cycled in Beijing, Hangzhou, Xian in many bicycle trips in China, cites in Asia such as Tokyo and cities in Europe. I had a long distance ride from Nanjing to Hangzhou and we pass through many cities.

Q: What are the cities you most enjoyable to biking in and why?

P: Yixing. It is because we cycled on well-planned bicycle path around a lake. I enjoyed the tour which going through the villages because the villagers invited us to stay. Certainly, it was very hot at that time at 44 degrees but when I was biking it was fine.

Q: What are the differences in terms of experience of biking compared with China & Europe?

P: At first, the difference is the quality of the cycle-track and routes compare to Europe. You have in China especially between Nanjing and Hangzhou, the route beside the road for bicycle and motor is very dangerous. It was always danger because of a lot of holes, canal equipment, snakes in the path. Sometimes the road will have 10 cm level differences change suddenly. Those kinds of big holes or water may draw many dangerous for bicycle users.

The other point is they do not have very good maps so we needed a GPS system in order to find our way, in Europe we can buy a bicycle maps everywhere easily. The journey between city and city is nothing, but there are some restaurants or cafes in Europe, you can sit down and take a rest, maybe also have a drink. It is completely different in China.

In the urban area, the tracks are not well organized. There is no cycle track in cities other than some tourist district like lake in Hangzhou. The bicycle facilities around the lack are good, but it is only around 1.5 hours journey. They need to 42

provide more tracks for bicycle users to provide the connection.

Q: Why did you choose biking rather than taking other transportation?

P: The advantage of bicycle is you can see more because of the mobility increase.

You are faster than walking, and you are slower than a car. Car is too fast for you to watch and visit somewhere and it cannot stop everywhere.

I can bike from point to point with a suitable speed and stop whenever you like.

Of course, biking is good for health as you are doing exercise while you are biking. Even there was 44 degrees in China last year, I still feel good because of the wind.

Q: Are there any different requirement for biking compare bicycle travel trip and daily transport in a city?

ful.

Q: Do you think the concept of bicyclecity can work in Asian cities like Hong Kong & China and Why? P: A concept may work if you have well prepared descriptions and place. In HK there is no place for cyclists to bike with family since it is too dangerous.

Also, there are not enough type of bicycle to support different requirement. The climate for a normal people is fine from October to march only then it is too hot for normal people to cycling. HK Island is definitely possible only in the flat part for normal people, hilly land is hard for untrained bicycle users. It will better for a bike with gear. Also, it is necessary to allow bicycle to get in to MTR. It is impossible to start biking from home to working.

P: When I was living in Germany, I bike everyday as a daily transport. To biking around is always more convenience and faster than driving a car. Even to shopping, I did with my bike. But the city I lived is a flat land, which means cycling as a means of transport is not suitable if a city with too many hills. For biking as travel tour, it is able to have hills since it is not too high. Normally, a road suitable for a car is also suitable for a bicycle.

For travel tour, we need protection helmet to provide safety. Of course, it is more common in Europe right now. For biking as daily transport, the distance is much shorter, it is easy to go around the city.

For travel tour, we want to see something, we want some event happen during biking but it is now necessary for daily transport.

Q: Have bicycle change your perception of the city? And How? P: What should I say is I definitely like Hong Kong very much, but I miss cycling.

Because biking you can see more with higher mobility, and slower than a car. In a car, you just pass through without seeing anything. But with a bicycle you can stop everywhere, you can stop and take a photo 43

Perception Oxford Dictionaries Pronunciation: /pəˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/ noun [mass noun] 1 the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses:the normal limits to human perception Awareness of something through the senses: the perception of pain Psychology & Zoologythe neurophysiological processes, including memory, by which an organism becomes aware of and interprets external stimuli.

2 the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted: Hollywood’s perception of the tastes of the American public[count noun] :we need to challenge many popular perceptions of old age Intuitive understanding and insight: ‘He wouldn’t have accepted, ‘ said my mother with unusual perception

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To imagine the bicycle as a new ‘Stim’ layer added into the urban space, the bicycle is considered as a unique infrastructure system that could change the velocity and form of transit, thereby enhancing the understanding and connection of people to their urban fabrics. Utilising the theoretical framework of Lerup, this new ‘Stim’ layer can be considered as a new ecology of human movement in a city that is added onto the original ecology of metro transport. Yet first it is important to examine what how various forms of transport affect users’ perception of an urban space.

Our perception of any urban space, including our visual, memory, and psychological feelings about that space are formed and shaped by speed, time and the sequence of images. Adolf Hildebrand states that, “Architecture arouses in us not merely the possibility of movement, but a definite feeling of space...ideas of movement are stimulated and attain unity of effect through space itself being converted into visual impressions.” Likewise, August Schmarsow describes special experience as “an accumulation of sensations brought about through movement within a built space.” Besides the impact on our visual field, the reflection of a space to a person can also directly impact the context of experience. When the memory of a space con-

nects to collective history, to personal history, to locate characters, or to daily events, the space constructs a stronger image. The following sections will address the aspects that play a key role in affecting the formation of our perception of urban environments.

In the condition of the contemporary metropolis, the domination of metro and rail public transport systems has been mentioned previously. The impact of these forms of transportation drives the phenomenon of ‘understanding nothing between urban fields’ that characterizes and defines ‘Drosscapes’ in a person’s psychological sense. As discussed before, this project proposes the bicycle to be added as a ‘Stim’ layer to the city in order to change the current situation. By adding a new layer of transportation with a different velocity, it is believed that the experience of urban space for people can likewise be changed. Indeed, our perception and ideas of a space is usually formed by our past experience. The change of form and speed of personal transportation and the subsequent change of one’s perceptions and experiences of urban space are examined in the following parts in order to find out the possible impact for Hong Kong.

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Bicycle as ‘Stim’ Layer The current form of transport in Hong Kong can be divided into two categories: walking and motorized transportation.

At present the two extreme kinds of mobility work together in a city. This section aims to analyze the changes to mobility and accessibility when the bicycle layer is added compared to the metro transport and walking. Diagrams of accessible distance for different speeds are used to illustrate the impacts on the accessibility of a person going through the city.

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A series of abstract diagrams and images are utilized to demonstrate how the bicycle layer ‘Stim’ space affects urban space by the comparing the distances and velocities of walking, cycling and the in MTR in a 10 minute period.

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Change of Distance and Accessibility As discussed, the urban space that can be understood by the MTR journey, especially the spaces affected by station nodes are defined as ‘Stim(s)’ in a personal understanding of the district. The affected area under the current situation can be counted as the accessible distance of walking from the station node. A study

by Roskilde University Students, found the possible distance for people to walk from a station is usually 500 meters, which can be counted as 10 minutes of walking with a speed of 3km per hour. In other words, the affective areas from the station walking are spaces inside the perimeter of 500 meters.

1. Speed A – Walking with normal speed: approximately 3km per hour, which is 500m for 10 minutes walking.

2. Speed B – Busy road condition with lower speed: approximately 12km per hour, which is 2km for 10 minutes cycling.

3. Speed C – Normal road condition with higher speed: approximately 20km per hour, which is 3km for 10 minutes cycling.

By applying the different accessible distances to Hong Kong urban areas, the diagrams reveal the accessible area at different speeds from the selected stations. It is clear that the accessible area of biking is much larger than walking. The covering areas of Speed C are already nearly the whole urban area of Kowloon from the Mong Kok Station and more than a half urban area of the northern Hong Kong Island from the Causeway Bay Station, which is 36 times larger than walking. Even considering the possible busy traffic in Hong Kong, Speed B is still 16 times larger than Speed A. The extensions of accessible area increase the perceptible space to people from the MTR station.

From the observation above, the increase of mobility assert the accessibility of a person to go through the urban area. By calculating the covered MTR station in the affecting areas, there are 16 stations covered by Speed C from Mong Kok and 9 from Causeway Bay. For Speed B, there are still 10 and 6 stations being covered in both Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Although the number of covered stations may slightly different from different stations, but it still proves that the bicycle can actually replace some short journey travel in the urban area. Besides, the accessible areas are considered as a field of space rather than a path of MTR. The space inside the field can be understood as truly accessible spaces, with the freedom to direct ones path and ability to choose one’s own way thereby creating ‘Stims’ for people understanding of urban space.

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Impact on Perception of Urban Space From the results of the previous section it is known that the change of mobility by bicycle can be considered not only as a support to the metro nodes but also as another choice for short journeys rather than metro. As mentioned before, our perception of space is strongly related to our mental image of the space, the relationship of space and time play a key role in the formation of a perception. The differences of the speed and ways to transport oneself via bicycle may affect and create a different perception of urban space.

In the following two parts, the mapping of images taken under different speed conditions and different ways of transport moving through an urban space are provided to examine the impact on a person’s perception of urban space through their journey

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The Image in Motion “Self-engendering motion promoted by the darting of the driver’s eyes, touching (because so intimate, so familiar) street, canopy, etc…” Lars Leurp As mobility and velocity sweep us along, the range of speed changes our viewing experience dramatically. For example, the scale of images and our ability to focus on objects are completely different on a train as compared to walking.

Series of mappings of images are utilized to re-form the image constructed under different speeds of motion by different forms of transport.

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Due to importance that different velocities have on the perception of space, the filmscape images were created and mapped together in order to visualize the image constructed at varying speeds. By capturing the images in motion, the filmstrips show the sequence of image movement. Furthermore, the images are used to have further comparison of differing speeds by different means of transport which are walking, biking, and MTR. In order to see how difference our image of a space is constructed in speed, To combine three different speeds by walking and biking passing through the same place. By looking at the filmscapes, it is easy to recognize that the images formed by walking and biking. The images resulting from biking and walking also have quite a lot overlapping objects in the filmscape.

The connections between scenes are smooth and can be easily related to each other. It is easy to imagine the image in motion, how the surrounding objects sequentially change. In other words, the more overlapping of space the more clear the image of space. The major difference is back to the velocity: since biking is much faster than walking, even the quality of forming perceptions is close, but a person travelling by bicycle significantly sees more than walking in the same number of scenes.

Beyond comparing walking and biking, The next 4 filmscapes was created to further compare the filmscapes of biking and the MTR. By observing the sequence change of images, Biking and MTR can be defined and fully understood as two kinds of image under motion.

For biking, as discussed in the 3 speeds filmscape, the overlapping of objects constructs a continuous sense of understanding which forms a clear image of space.

On the other hand, the image by MTR is very different when compared to the on-street transport. Although one is still able to find and connect between scenes, but the connecting parts of image is much less than biking. Because of the lack of overlapping between scenes, the passenger’s perceptions of the outside landscape maybe blurred due to the rapid motion. But at the same time, because of the inside environment of metro car is fixed, the images of the inside environment seems to be more dominant than outside landscape in the MTR.

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Perspective of Streetscapes The view from different levels of urbanity will drive a different understanding and relationship with the street and urban space. “In moving vehicles, the size of windows can vary considerably.�

From the enclosed space in frames to an almost uninterrupted panorama, the views of an urban environment affect the perception of a space.

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While speed certainly changes our perception, the ways in which we are transported also play a key role for us to understand the space. ‘Ways’ in this section is defined as different environment of transportation, for example, underground, highways and on the street. The different levels and ways to go through the urban area will create a different perspective for people to precept the urban space.

In order to examine how the different perspectives relate to the streetscape, the section shows the different point views of the ‘ways’ by the levelling of urban section, because of the high level, MTR on highways have a better view to the both sides of street which on street bicycle may not able because of the road in between. The underground MTR is separate from the street; the ‘streetscape’ for passengers can be defined as the internal space of the metro car. Indeed, this kind of domination of internal ‘streetscape’ may also happen in the MTR on highways because of the nearly enclosed envelope of the car.

In fact, by observing picture in MTR, it was found that the views to street from the highway MTR are limited by the framing of windows. There is no such freedom of perspective that cyclists have. The ‘streetscape’ inside is detached with the outside streetscape and becomes the major impact of the perception when passing through the urban space.

The understanding of the outside streetscape is thus reduced.

By the comparison of views from highways and on street, it is clear that the focus parts of two views are different. As mentioned, the view from the highways is wider than the on street views because of the level different. We can found that the dominant objects of highway’s view are the building and massing of the urban fabric rather than the streetscape. The street in the image of highway is smaller in proportion in compare to on street cyclist.

On the other hand, the perception of the street is stronger than MTR because the close relationship and images to the streetscape. The dominant view of a cyclist is all about the surrounding street environment.

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Impact on Relationship to Urban Space Since the change of accessibility, speed and form of transportation were explored in the pervious parts, we can see preliminarily how the bicycle can affect our perception including those visually and psychologically, in terms of the accessible distance and formation of images. In this section, the physical interactions with the surrounding urban environment cause by the change of form of transportation will be analysed through looking at sectional diagrams of a street environment where a bicycle passes through in order to find out the real or “lived� actual experience of an urban space by biking.

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Forms of Relationship “The construction of meaning was displaced from the objects itself to the spatial field between the viewer and the objects.”

The relationship of a person and the surrounding urban, especially the spaces “in between” will determine whether person can or cannot to form a memory of a district.

Comparison the street sections to show the change of relationships after the addition bicycle layer into the urban space. Diagrams can help to visualize the possible impact of bicycle on the relationship between cyclist and surrounding environments.

By looking at the sections and images, one can discover a series of patterns and relationships between the cyclist and the surrounding units. Firstly, since the cyclist is biking on street, the road condition and objects become one of the key experiences that we can never find when we are walking. By interacting with other road occupier, concentrations to the road’s rules become a new part of understanding of going through an urban space. The images of traffic conditions of different districts and also the different period of time construct varying perceptions of the urban environment. Indeed, the stop due to a traffic light can be the point for cyclist to stop and look around the urban environment rather than only focus on the traffic.

tion of the people cause by the freedom of bicycle which mentioned before are strengthening the perception of the urban space. Moreover, the relationships of them are no longer limited on the visual linkage but also physical connection, for example, sounds, smells, emotion and also physical touch.

Besides, since cyclists are biking in an outdoors environment, the relationship with the surrounding urban environment and community is much stronger than an enclosed transport environment. The awareness of the streetscape, signage creates a clear and solid image of space.

Also, the potentials of interaction to the surrounding communities are the key differences to other means of transportation. As the images shown, cyclists are in the same ‘space’ with the street environment include the street side shops and maybe the street activities, the experience of sharing the same ‘space’ and interac67

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Impacts “To cycling you can see more because of the mobility increases. You are faster than walking, and you are slower than a car.

A car is too fast for you to watch and visit somewhere and it cannot stop everywhere.” Sabine Pauli states the differences of biking in term of experiences of the journey. It is proved in a similar manner in the above studies. In fact, the impacts of bicycle as a ‘stim’ layer is firstly related to the increase of mobility compared to similar means of transport – walking. The increase of accessible distance by bicycle provides the potential of ‘Stim’ space for a person to experience.

Besides the impacts of mobility and accessibility to access the urban space, bicycle change the form of transport carrying a major role for the impact on our perception of urban space.

Due to the change of speed the position and form of transport, bicycle significantly changes the experience of passing through urban space. According to the studies, the perception and relationship between passenger in MTR and the outside urban environment are pretty weak, due to the enclosed indoor space and the position of transport. As the earlier definition, the mutation of urban field in the perception of a passenger is called as ‘hyperspace’. After studying, the space inside the MTR cargo in between the journey can also now defined as ‘drosscapes’ as there are too enclosed and controlled with lack of understanding of urban space. On the other hand, bicy70

cle is proved that can generate a much stronger perception by understanding and interacting with the urban space along with the increase of experience and relationship. As Pong Yat Ming said “The understanding of distance has been changed. You are not controlled by the underground environment or fixed route to access the city. The urban area between start point and end point will be discovered by the bicycle experience.”

According to this kind of impacts from the bicycle, we can say that the experience of cycling through urban area is a new ‘stim’ layer that can be added psychologically onto our perception and understanding of the city, in the way which cannot achieve by metro transport, while providing the mobility as an efficient transportation that required for a metropolis.

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Martin Turner,

Administrators of Hong Kong Cycling Alliance Q: What role does the bicycle now play in your daily life?

T: It is my mainly transport. I use it all the time. For example, last night in Wan Chai, I was drunk and I probably went back home by cycling. I can’t go somewhere without my bike, I will feel frustrated. When I am with my bike, everything instance. Once I want to go somewhere, I can be somewhere as I want.

Q: What made you want to bike in the first place?

T: When I grow up in England, every kid has a bike. Everyone used to bike all the time. We went everywhere with the transport. In Hong Kong, I also use that at the same way in daily life. Even if that distance is short that I can walk instead of biking, I will still bring my bike along me caused of the flexibility. I always used to bike as my major transport. Cycling is more efficient than transport in Hong Kong like MTR and bus when you focus on talking about how easy to get around, how quickly to move from point to point and how flexibly.

transitions are provided. People started to drive less aggressively. It just similar to the case in Macau, which have a natural way of interacted together band respect to each other between different parties of people. This is a problem that people don’t recognize bicycle is a part of the road as a transport in Hong Kong.

Q: What have been and are the major challenges for biking around the city?

Q: What have you found are the differences/ similarities between biking and other means of transit in terms of how you experience the city?

T: I think the perception of difficult to cycle in Hong Kong comes more from non-cyclist. For a cyclist, the poor quality of local drivers should be the challenge. To use the road, safety is always important as we always cycling safety, and the awareness. Cycling in Hong Kong requires a high level of concentration. It will be more pleasant if people can cycle safely. I am not rely on the other facilities as cycling is quite independent. For current situation, cycle parking isn’t such big problem as well as bike can park anywhere.

I think the parking provision is more benefit to the society rather than the cyclists.

Safety and security is more important for my point of view.

The individual journey influenced by the poor quality of driving. It should cooperate and respect with the other drivers. The public attitudes and culture can be changed like San Francisco in early 1990s. There is a conflict between the drivers and cyclists that people think cyclists do not belong to the road and it is illegal for people to cycle on the road. Roads are only for the cars. Around 2005, the government changed the policy, planning, infrastructures and participation by

T: You are actually going through the places but not just for a destination. Speed is little bit faster when it compared to the other means of transit. It is the right speed to pass through like country side, it’s easy to stop it at the same time it can enhance the interaction as cars need to find a place to park. Furthermore, bicycle can be stopped anywhere (space along the road), disappears as an entity, enhance flexibility. You can plan the route like 500 meters, 3 or 4 km, can get the starting point towards the station which you can have the sequence control of the journey.

It doesn’t constraint not like the bus routes.

It is totally freedom which the maximum spend and in different and all the directions.

Cycling acts a way for travelling and engaging the urban movement. Apparently, compared with MTR system and bus, they simply moving from point A to point B, and everything is missing, it is a constrain to follow where the vehicle takes you, besides cycling is freedom. Indeed, cycling is beauty and it is the high point of a day. It is a pleasure of cycling as you can control and release from stress of working. You are free to stay and put your feel

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down, it is all your own choice. Driving on the road should be also a pleasure, but in a city you will all the time constraint by the other vehicles around you and you need to stop as well.

Through cycling, you are doing exercises as well, using your own energy, which is good for health.

Q: What do you focus on when you are biking?

Does velocity change your perception of the city?

T: Most driver focus on efficiency, as there is traffic on the road. I think bicycle work at the same way; we focus on the road when we bike.

If you bike slowly than other transport, you are probably need to notice what actually behinds you, it is the concern on safety again.

Thus, it takes lot of concentrations.

Q: Has the bicycle changed your life style?

T: How and in what ways positively or negatively? Although I bike since I born, I didn’t bike for a while when I came to Hong Kong. It changed my life style compare to the period of time. As I just want to be free, moving by my bike is atomic. I am free of my movement as it can be. It is perfected.

Q: Do you believe increased mobility via the bike will change or affect understanding of urban district and spaces in an already dense city like HK? T: Yes, it is transform. The dead space between transport station, they may able to be accessible for bike. But for the dense city like Hong Kong as a pretty sectional development, a bike may not help much as it can just bring you to the entrance of a building.

Maybe for some short distance journey, walking is more efficiency. But bicycle also work since you have an efficiency lock for your bicycle, it may only take you a few seconds.

Q: Do you think biking can increase the relationship or connection between the surrounding environment and urban dwellers?

T: I think the connection with the community and street scrape can be increased by biking.

As cycling you don’t need to take the main roads so side streets become more accessible and relatively strength the relationship and connection as well. It reduces the importance of station or nodes of transports. On the other hand, nowadays one of the constraints of the distance and time is the network of transport. The nodes and changes are simply a distance away. Bike is a much more continu-

ous mental map of the road around us for this case. I consider the road or street around me as an area rather than network. Any points in the area are equally significant to me, they are all places I can reach with the bike rather than think about the network of MTR of buses. I will consider the journey there rather than think about the destination of points.

All the points are regarded as a whole but not only the route that is just a line, all points are all equal and valuable for me.

Q: As an admin of HKCAll, how do you describe the cycling culture in HK? T: The cycling culture in Hong Kong is strange and mixed. Differences between cyclists and non-cyclists and differences urban areas and territories are extreme. Cycle tracks in new towns are much more common, not like the Hong Kong Island.

In a place with cycling as culture, once people use bike as a transport to reach a point normally, the other drivers will drive less aggressive and more awareness. It is the culture influence by cycling, which is different from Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, there is a large group of society which is not understand how cycling can be the transport. They don’t understand that.

However, many people in the New Territories use bike a lot and do consider bike as transport such as Shatin. According to some survey in 2009, about 65% people in Shatin believe that cycling is a formal transport. The urban area is different, people may think it is not possible to do so.

Q: What are the major problems you think in order to make a bicycle friendly city work in the ever growing and expanding cities throughout Asia like HK? T: It is a huge question! The first problem is for the government to recognize that cycling is a transport and integrated in the planning as well. At the same time should raise the public awareness such as the drivers’ attitudes. Also provide more parking spaces. The route system for cycling should be well integrated with the destination point. Enhance the level of safety for cyclists. There is a need for training for cycling skills for people in Hong Kong. There are many ways that infrastructures can be improved. For example, when we are biking now, reclamations are getting around in the roads. Thus, improve the movement on the roads.

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In describing the cycling culture and patterns in Hong Kong, interviewee Martin Turner declares: “The cycling culture in Hong Kong is strange and mixed. Differences between cyclists and non-cyclists and differences urban areas and territories are extreme.” It is found that in Hong Kong, there are approximately 62000 cycling trips a day that constitutes approximately 0.5% of total weekday mechanized travel.

Of these trips, 97% of them take place in the New Territories and Outlying Islands, meaning only 3% Hong Kong’s total daily cycle trips occur in the urban areas of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

Indeed, the reasons why cycling culture is much popular in New Territories rather than urban areas in Hong Kong may relate to the difficulty of mixing cycling use with road traffic, much of which can be attributed to drivers’ attitudes, vehicle speed, traffic volumes, and lack of cyclists’ training.

However, the potential for people to bike in Hong Kong is not as low as often imagined. According to data from Transportation Department, approximately 27% of the land area of Hong Kong is available for cycling , while only less than 25% of the Hong Kong territory’s landmass is developed as urban area. The conclusion to be drawn from this and other data proves that most of the urban areas in Hong Kong can be expected to be suitable for biking.

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Challenge of Biking in Hong Kong Cycling as a daily transport, to bike in the urban areas is one of the major problems. As mentioned, there is vulnerability of cycling in urban areas in Hong Kong. Once a person asked about cycling in Hong Kong urban areas, the answers are usually not possible, because of the consideration of safety. According to the interviewees, Pong and Turner mention that the driver attitudes on the road are always opposed to the use of bicycle. Most of the occupiers of the road in Hong Kong do not consider that the bicycle can be one of the road users, and even government does not integrate cycling as one of their considerations in planning new roads. This lack of space on a busy traffic roads and poor planning policy makes this contradiction ever more serious.

As a metropolis, due to the size of urban development in Hong Kong and the significant distance between urban districts, also some topography challenges such as the Victoria Harbour, these mitigate the use of bicycle as the only means of completing a journey. To work with other means of transport is certainly needed. Cycling facilities are currently missing in the urban areas of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, where there are nearly no parking areas and cycle tracks. Although there are more facilities provided in the New Territories, it is also reported that there is still not enough.

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P

ractical Strategies learning from

NEW YORK HANG TOKYO COPENHA

Any understanding of contemporary city traffic must be related to a conception of the personal demands of individual’s for mobility in city. Given the various modes and options of transportation, people’s transportation choices remain at a very personal level of lifestyle choices or economic means within the city. When considering the bicycle as a mode of transportation, there are many promoted advantages of bicycle use including: an environmental friendly means of transport, independent freedom of transit, the ‘healthy’ image of cycling, and the especially the effective speed for short distance journeys. In addition, the use of space in the city road system by a bicycle is significantly less than other means of transport; therefore it presents a great potential benefit to the busy traffic conditions of a modern city.

Despite the facts that bicycles offer great potential benefits for the city traffic and human transportation needs, there are still many limitations influencing the use of bicycles in an urban environment. Base on the different environmental and cultural condition, to accommodate the different challenge, it affects different ways to plan a bicycle-city. These usually can be defined into key strategies for the planning of a bicycle friendly urban environment as presented and designed below: Cycling and Public Transport

Cycle Traffic

Bike Rental System

Promotion of the use of bicycles in conjunction with the city’s existing public transport network; facilities and planning strategies to provide bicycle parking and storage.

The over-all planning of a cycling system and/or network in the urban area; infrastructural elements including cycle tracks and cycle lines; traffic policies supporting the use of bicycles. The promotion of cycling’s image and support for the use of bicycles.

Bike rental system for tourists and temporary users provided; promotion of the rental system and technological support.

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GZHOU AGEN

Hong Kong as a metropolis with a very mature development of urban infrastructure, it is always facing the problems of busy traffic and limited road spaces that make people do not agree bicycle can be add on to the current road system in the urban area. But what had been found in the case of New York City, the adding layer of bicycle path is actually improve the smoothness of road transport as the bicycle path provide an effective and efficient way to transport through the urban area. The considerations of how to separate and mix use with the bicycle and other road occupier can create different faces of street traffic. According to the interview with Turner and Pong, they both mentioned that speed difference of bicycle and other vehicles make the difficulty to bike on the urban area. By learning from Copenhagen, to set up a calmer traffic environment with setting up the limited lower speed can reduce the aggressive attitudes of other road users.

portation. In the high dense urban area of Hong Kong, a massive parking area may not appropriate to be provided, underground or vertical parking maybe one of the possible approaches. Additionally, public bike system can also help as the flexibility for picks up and drops off a bike for any temporarily use.

Since the scale of urbanism and transport form of rapid transit in Hong Kong, we have to agree the importance to working with the MTR system in order to work out the most suitable form of transport network for cyclist. Considering the capacity of the MTR, for all cyclists to bring bicycle onto the MTR may not very realistic for the condition. Bicycle parking around the station may need for the change of trans77

Transport Hub

Act as the supportive change of transportation; the stimulation will be the extension of the accessible field from the hub. As a physical node is added to the city, it usually works with the metro station like the case in Tokyo. The ‘stim’ layer from the hub is considering locally and extensive for the understanding of the urban area, although there may have overlap with fields by the extensive zones.

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Cycle Lane

Fixed network link up areas which can encourage the use of bike. The potential for ‘stim’ not just on the network itself but also the field inside the network even there may not have cycle lane. As one fundamental element of bicycle planning, lane can be a basic infrastructure for the ‘stim’ layer, for a well planning lane system like Copenhagen, increasing not only the accessibility of bike but also permeability of side streets. In terms of the relationship of roads, it will be totally different for the choice to separate lane or side-road lane. For sure, separate lane will have less relationship with the urban dweller, but with a higher speed and side-road lane is just in the opposite way.

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Rental Bike Programme

Compared to the transport Hub, the planning of rental bike programme is more likely on a global consideration by creating the whole network system of bicycle use. The term network in here is not actually fixed, the connection of stations for rental bike provide by overlapping in the accessible distance. Stations become nodes for the ‘stim’ layer, which affect the way finding for cyclist. Thus, the overlapping creates a high dense field of understanding.

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Pong Yat Ming,

Citizen in Hong Kong, Founder of the event ‘A year without Developers’ Q: What role does bicycle play in your daily life?

P: Maybe I should talk about the reason I ride a bike in a city first. After the trip to South America, I am now having an event call ‘A year without land developer’. If I want to achieve this event, first of all what I need is ‘traffic independence’ since land developers monopolize most means of public transport in Hong Kong.

So, to achieve ‘traffic independence’, what I have is to drive my car, motor or ride in a bicycle. From the economic and environmental points of view, I am not really interested in driving so my choice is bike. In this case, I will call bicycle is an essential tool for me to fight against with the developers. I cannot continue the event without my bicycle. Of course, it is also a means of transportation. Basically, I will use it to go around the city everyday.

Q: How do you choose your bicycle according to Hong Kongʼs condition?

P: Actually, there are some restrictions for biking in Hong Kong. For example, bicycle is not able to gain access to the harbour tunnels. If you need to cross the harbour, you have to take the ferry. Most of lines are quite expensive, it may spend you about $20 with your bike. Usually, I like to use the Star-ferry line from Central to Tsim Sha Tsui to cross the harbour, it is cheaper that it just costs you $2 but it only accepts foldable bicycles. So I have to choose a foldable bicycle, but the most popular foldable bicycles have 8-20inch wheels, it is too slow and not safe enough to bike in urban districts, especially the speed is very important if bicycle is considered as a means of transportation. My bicycle is a foldable bike with 26inch wheels and it can run in high speed.

Q: What are the differences between biking and other transportation in term of experience the city?

P: Firstly, most of the public transports in Hong Kong are being overloaded. These kinds of over-capacity make the public transport not comfortable to ride in at all.

Also, the time use for taking public transport may not be as fast as you think.

Traffic jams, the interchanging between the MTR stations, limited number of routes, bring much inconvenience. My feeling towards biking is that it is somehow faster than MTR in term of travel time. Secondly, the freedom of biking is very different from the way we experience by public transport. We can choose the route from point to point actively by your own choice, it feels good that you do not need to pay and wait, and cram with other people. I think the relationship between people and the surrounding environment has also changed. As you are biking outdoors, different weather conditions will directly affect you biking experience. The understanding of district you pass through is also different compared to other means of transport.

You can stop everywhere then you interest to stay, some of those space maybe somewhere you can never be there by other transportation. Besides, some people also said the speed of bicycle is the most suitable speed for a human transit relate to your eyes and body acceptable range, it may be the reason why bicycle is a very comfortable type of transportation.

Q: What have been and are the major challenges for biking around the city?

P: I think the lack of supporting facilities and policy will bring lots of challenges to bicycle users. Normally, bicycles should always stay on the left-hand side, but under Hong Kong’s road system bicycles cannot go straight in situation that cars want to turn left, putting bicycle users who need to cross the road lines to the right-hand in a lot of danger. The roads are not wide enough, when the road occupy by a bus, there is no enough space for bicycle users. It is very dangerous and also it makes the drivers hate to see bicycles on a busy road. In cases that I need to cross the hills or harbour, the rule that bicycle can’t cross the tunnels

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will bring lots of problem, that may cost you many times let biking becomes unavailable. (Road condition – holes, not flat enough) The hilly land in HK also limit the accessibility of bicycle in urban area, such as HK island, the only flat land just along the sea-side, it will be a big impact for normal biker. For the cycling culture in HK, as the bicycle is not popular use in urban area and the speed of bicycle may affect the efficiency of other car or transportation, that makes other road users do not use to work with bicycle and even do not really like biker.

It may relate to the education of bicycle-use, lots of HK people don’t know how to bike, that may lead to the unrespectable of bicycle since they do not even know about cycling. Of course, we can see there are more people biking recently, but it has still mostly been considered as leisure activity or sport.

Q: Has the bicycle changed your life style? How and in what ways positively or negatively?

P: For start, my fitness will have a lot improve. I do not need to worry about the lack of exercise anymore. Also, I have a better understanding of HK’s road network, for example, how to go from one point to another point. Those make me always find some new understanding of the city I live. However, it is difficult for me to bring the bike in some building or some district, such as most of shopping malls in Hong Kong and office building. I need to use much time to explain or argue with them. It somehow makes me choose or prefer to go to places where it is accessible for bicycles.

Q: Havebicyclechangeyourperceptionofthecity?AndHow? P: The understanding of distance has been changed. You are not controlled by the underground environment or fixed route to access the city. The urban area between start point and end point will be discovered by the bicycle experience. The form of knowing the city will be a lot different to other modes of transportation. You will be a lot closer to the community that you pass through, you can choice your route, and you can stop wherever you want.

The freedom of communicating the urban space will much more stronger than MTR even bus. Previously, my understanding of crossing the urban will be considering by time used, but now, the choosing of path and the experience of biking will considered.

Q: Base on your experience, how do you think the bicycle-city concept can truly work in Hong Kong?

P: To consider bicycle as a mean of transport, the cycling culture in new- town district is very different to urban district because they already have a planning of cycle-track. When we consider the size of HK, I think it will be necessary to provide some kinds of support means of transportation for long distance travel through district. So, facilities like parking for bicycle have to provide, but there is not here in Hong Kong MTR. In some districts do not have cycle-track. I always suggest the pedestrian roads can be shared with bicycle so that bicycle will not need to share the road with other car in such danger environment. To provide a safe condition for bike users is so important for proposing bicycle use in Hong Kong. Moreover, the bicycle accessibility in different scales have to be improved since we are always facing different problems for bringing our bicycle both in urban level and building level. For example, we can never get into tunnels by bicycle, but considering the geographical condition in Hong Kong, we must use tunnels to go through hills or harbour. Moreover, many public area and building such as malls, parks, shops, commercial buildings, etc. These will bring lots of inconvenient.

Q: Finally do you wish the bicycle-city concept could work in Hong Kong?

P: Of course I wish. Recently, I watch some TV programmes about bicycle culture in New York. It is absolutely possible in Hong Kong if New York also work.

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In the emerging of metropolis, the ever-growing sizes of urban areas, and the massive increase of desire for urban mobility, the current mode of rapid transit is only to extend but not to connect. This ‘bypass’ system of transportation psychologically disconnects people from the city. It leads to a ‘drosscape’ by allowing people ‘bypass’ to experience the city. The reason for injecting bicycle into a metropolis is to add ‘stim’ back into the city so that people can experience and understand the city with a psychological, physical and special level.

Through the examination of how bicycles impact on the experience of travel and transport which is compared to ‘bypass’ transport, and how the change of experience makes differences to our perception of an urban as a ‘stim’. The result reflects that, the impact of bicycle is always related to the speed and mobility. The increase of mobility provides the potential to access more and this becomes the key benefit for bicycle to ‘stim’. In addition, the position of a bicycle ride also impact a lot on our perception and understanding of city in terms of the change of speed, perspective, and the relationship which is the way always be mentioned throughout the research – ‘go through’ transport.

Apart from the abstract study on how bicycle ‘stim’ for the understanding of urban space psychologically. We also

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includes a section of physical analysis on the actual planning strategies, which can be applied due to the current condition in Hong Kong. It is discovered that the facilities support the change of transport is the fundamental factors, which are influencing the smoothness of bicycle use whether to create a transport hub of bicycle like Tokyo or a network system of bike stations in Hangzhou. Besides the facilities such as physical planning elements, policy and government support determine the possibility of bicycle use in term of the control of road volume, separation of paths, bicycle education, etc.

Although the two sections of study focus in various and different fields whether abstractly and practically; the two parts complement each other as one to become the whole projection of the ‘stim’ layer. In the bicycle ‘stim’ concept, the practical planning and design elements always become the potentials to support the possible use of bicycle.

Thus, different ways of the strategies change the performance of the ‘stim’ layer work. According to the studies, a matrix of scenarios can be used to develop different possible ways to adopt the bicycle to the “Stim” in different conditions in Hong Kong.

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Acknowledgements I am very grateful to my Final Year Project supervisor,

Mr. Joshua Roberts,

with his constant guidance, endless encouragement and invaluable support throughout the progress of this dissertation, as well as his all offered great advice through every step of the process of researching and writing this book.

I also want to express my gratitude to the following experts in bicycle, with who we have interviewed and discussed their various cycling experience and opinions: Mr. Martin Turner, Mr. Pong Yat Ming, and Mrs. Sabine Pauli.

Last but no least, I wish to thank my love Lulu Tsui, my FYP partner Karman Luk and all my friends who has been the companion by my side through my continuing journeys through this project.

HUI CHUN HOI Research Thesis B.Arch City University of Hong Kong

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