Street Network

A three-dimensional pedestrian network is crucial for Hong Kong. Government authorities, international consulting firms, and urban researchers love to talk about walkability. However, when it comes to the high-density city, unfortunately, their analyses are hardly convincing. Besides miss-conceptualisations of walkability for Asian contexts, usually, from European and North American experience, they also use wrong data. Pedestrians walk on the three-dimensional (3D) networks, such as the footbridges and undergrounds. But since the city did not have such data in the past, so people use the road network as a substitute.

Chinese metro companies actively look for overseas markets and opportunities under the Belt and Road Initiative. Several metro companies are conducting urban rail transit projects abroad. They won bids due to their rich experience at home. However, an urban rail transit project is a systematic work that consists of planning, design, construction, equipment, and operation. It involves human and non-human actors and their complex interactions. Each project must coordinate with the host country regarding the political system, planning and development control, and technological standards.

Chinese cities are the leader in building gated communities. After three-decade expansions, a recent policy is seeking to open them. We use permeability analysis to explore the ‘what if?’ question posed by the policy: what if gated communities became permeable? We asked the question in respect of non-motorised access, not for cars as the ungating policy implied. Nanchang, a medium-sized Chinese city with over 600 large gated communities, was the study area. We constructed a bespoke complete pedestrian network, for the permeability modelling. The ungated pedestrian network is 18 times longer than the gated road network. We offer the analysis to urban scholars, planners and governments by way of a quantified simulation.

A walking-friendly environment can encourage pedestrian access and increase metro ridership; therefore, it should be carefully designed around the stations. Despite this, urban rail transit development is not always accompanied by walkable station surroundings. This issue deserves particular attention in developing countries such as China, which is experiencing rapid metro development and has abundant gated communities in building around stations, in both old neighbourhoods and newly sprawled areas.