Causeway Bay is a major shopping district in Hong Kong. Gazillion number of people come by Causeway Bay every day. Over the year, one street after another have been converted into pedestrian use. Instead of squeezing into overcrowded sidewalk, more space are make available for pedestrian. This makes walking in Causeway Bay a much better experience.

Hennessy Road is the major thoroughfare in Causeway Bay. The surrounding streets are often narrow and labyrinth like. These streets were once only backstreets behind major department stores. Today they are destinations themselves with many boutiques stores and restaurants. These side streets are lousy for moving traffic but terrific for walking and shopping. It is a superb idea to close them for cars and open them for pedestrians.

Some streets have permanently converted into pedestrian plaza. They are nicely paved and raised to level with the sidewalk. But in other area, it is not obvious what has been done to restrict vehicle access. In the picture above, the only control device seems to be the sign that says "Access Only". In the morning the streets are lined with delivery truck, those access is expressly allowed. Still access restriction is working quite well with relatively few vehicles coming in. The taxi in the picture below is one of those.

With few physical marking, how do I recognize this as a newly created pedestrian area? I think the pedestrians themselves make it a pedestrian street. When sufficient number of people come off the sidewalk and go into the street, it makes driving through difficult. Cars become intruder there. These pictures are taken in the morning when actions have barely started. I'm sure when people are coming out in full force in the evening it will become impassable for cars.

2010.06.29 [urban planning] - comments