In Conduit Road the buildings were quite tall. This is because they were mainly residential apartments and Hong Kong has such a big population and such little space, which has to be housed, and so they have to house people, floor by floor, on top of each other in the sky which obviously uses less land.
In Staunton Road the Buildings were low rised. This is because there is more space on that small part of Hong Kong. It is also because it is slightly further away from the CBD. There were there are many services available such as small shops, restaurants and bars, when compared with other residential areas, such as Conduit Rd. In my view, the houses were not very nice because they were above looking down onto the middle of a wet market which was nosisy and smelly. However, the renat in this area is cheaper and so some people can only afford to live her and not somewhere cleaner and more spacious.
In Des Voeux Road the houses are very tall. Some buildings have more than 100 floors each, not including the lobby and car-park. This is because the buildings are used for big companies which need more space. Since this part of town is the CBD it is very
commercial.
In my hypothesis I already said that I believed that the buildings would get larger as I got to the middle of the city. But as I was doing this project I realized that my estimate was wrong. You see, Conduit Road’s buildings are medium height because of the large population in such a small city. In Staunton Road the buildings were the smallest since it was a market and services type place. I was right however, about the buildings in the CBD. They were the biggest by far since the land use in that part of Hong Kong is very commercial.
Is Hong Kong Normal In Terms Of Building Height?
Although I believe that there is no such thing as a normal city, as cities vary so greatly is size and layout, I have to say that for a densely populated city like Hong Kong, the use of land for different purposes is quite reasonable. I would say that the inner city has smaller buildings but there are more people occupying the available space in the city. However, if you are looking at the ideal layout of a city then, as a geographer, I would say that Hong Kong is not normal in terms of building heights. This is because there are great variations in the sizes of buildings in the same areas and some areas have grown in size without much planning.
In Conduit Road, Staunton Road and Des Voeux Road there was a great difference between the percentages of vehicular traffic. In Conduit Road there was the least, because there weren’t many people on the road and you need people to drive cars. In Staunton Road, there was a medium amount of cars passing by although most of them were taxis that were driving passengers through to go to their destinations. The graph below proves my point and a pattern does emerge. The fewest amount of cars are found in the quietest district, namely Conduit Road, and the greatest amount of cars are found in the noisiest district, namely Des Voeux Rd in the CBD.
Conduit Road
In Conduit Road I found that there was hardly any vehicular traffic. This is because that part of Hong Kong is mainly all residential use. The people who drove past were either passing through to their destination, driving to their own apartment on or nearby Conduit Road, or were dropping off or picking up people.
Staunton Road
On Staunton Road there was quite a lot of vehicular traffic. This is because Staunton Road is a market kind of place. The vehicles that passed by were mostly going past on their way to their various destinations. Some were dropping off passengers who were going on their morning stroll shopping for food.
Des Voeux Road
In Des Voeux Road there was an incredible amount of cars. The Pie Chart showed that 55% of Vehicular traffic was on Des Voeux Road. There was a lot of traffic because Des Voeux Road is in the Central Business District of Hong Kong, which is why there were so many vehicles. When I was studying the traffic on Des Voeux Road it was rush hour which also explains why there were so many vehicles on the road at that time.
Was I Right or Not?
In my hypothesis I said that the amount of traffic would increase, the closer I got to the CBD. It did so and so I was right. There is lots of traffic in Des Voeux Road because it is so commercial. In Conduit Road the traffic was the least busy. However it probably seems busy for the people living there. In Staunton Road the traffic was middling.
Is a Hong Kong Normal In terms of Vehicular Traffic?
Yes, in terms of vehicular traffic Hong Kong is quite normal. . In Des Voeux Road it shows on the map that it has the largest percentage of vehicular traffic in the three locations. That is normal because a normal central business district has more vehicles than the suburbs and inner city of a town.
In Conduit Road, Staunton Road and Des Voeux Road there was a quite a big difference between the percentages of pedestrian traffic. The more commercial use the more pedestrians who are interested, the less commercial use the fewer pedestrians. As you can see this Pie Chart shows that there mustn’t have been a lot of commercial land use on Conduit Road because there weren’t many pedestrians because the land use is practically all housing. On Staunton Road there were many services and Commercial land use because there were quite a lot of pedestrians who were buying goods or walking on their way to another destination. As you can see on the Pie Chart, on Des Voeux Road that part of Hong Kong must have been full of pedestrians who were passing by or who were using the Services and Goods Stores. In addition, they also might have been using the commercial land use e.g. office building, or hotels. As you can see on the pie chart below, it must have been rush hour on Des Voeux Road.
Conduit Road
On the Pie Chart it shows that only 6% of the pedestrian traffic on the three locations is on Conduit Road. This must mean that probably only about 15 Pedestrians passed. On Conduit Road there were hardly any pedestrians this is because Conduit Road is one of the suburbs of Hong Kong.
Staunton Road
On the Pie Chart it shows that 17% of the pedestrian traffic on the three locations is on Staunton Road. This must mean that probably only about 40 pedestrians passed. On Staunton Road there were quite a lot of pedestrians this is because Staunton Road is in the inner suburb of Hong Kong.
Des Voeux Road
On the Pie Chart it shows that 77% of the pedestrian traffic on the three locations is on Des Voeux Road. This must mean that probably about 186 pedestrians passed. Therefore, on Des Voeux Road there were a lot of pedestrians this is because Des Voeux Road is in the Central Business District of Hong Kong.
Was I Right Or Not?
On my Hypothesis I predicted that the amount of pedestrians would increase as I moved from the Suburbs towards the CBD. I found that my hypothesis was correct because the amount of pedestrians did increase as I moved from the Suburbs to the CBD.
Is Hong Kong Normal In Terms Of Pedestrian Traffic?
Yes, Hong Kong is quite normal in terms of pedestrian traffic. In normal cities you would except to find that as you moved from the Suburbs to the CBD the amount of pedestrians would increase. And in Hong Kong the pedestrians increase as you move from the Suburbs to the CBD and so, as a result of this study, I found that Hong Kong is a normal city pedestrian-wise.
In Des Voeux Road, Central there were many pedestrians. This is because it is one of the busiest places in Hong Kong. My data showed that 200 pedestrians pass by every four minutes. One can imagine how many pedestrians must pass along that stretch of road in an hour. There are lots of shops and offices on Des Voeux Road. The majority of people who pass must be on their way to work or to nearby shops. Most of the land use is for offices, shops and banking. The buildings are tall with lots of floors that hold lots of workers and shops. The reason why the buildings are so high is that I think the rent must be really expensive so the buildings need to take up less ground space but they need to be high because of the offices and shops they need to fit inside the building. There are some small shops and restaurants in this area but mainly fast food services to serve busy workers. The traffic was quite busy:195 vehicles per 4 minutes but not as many as I thought there would be.
In Conduit Road there were hardly any pedestrians which was surprising as I expected this would be a busy area. I think that as this is a more residential area everyone was either inside their homes or already at work. Building heights were tall with the highest building having 40 floors. Four out of the five buildings we looked at were residential and the other building provided services for people who lived in this area. There was no industry and no offices in this area. The traffic was quite busy, 550 vehicles per hour. I think this is because this area is on the way to the central business district and it alos has high-rise partment buildings most of which have carparks underneath.
In Staunton Road the pedestrian count was more than I thought with 600 pedestrians per hour. This is because the area is an older part of Hong Kong and has small side streets and antique shops which are interesting for tourists. It also has restaurants, bars, shops and some small local industry. The building height is only a maximum of 6 floors and the minimum is 3 floors. I think this is because the buildings are old and were probably built prior to 1950 or 1960. In those days, they did not build high-rise residential buildings. The land is also very sloped and difficult to build on. Most of the shops are small and there are a lot of restaurants. There are some small businesses printers or herbal shops. This area is becoming more popular and it has restaurants and galleries that attract people. It is easy to get to by public transport and escalators. This means that the rent will go up for most buildings in the area and the type of buildings might begin to change in the future.
Next time I go on this field trip I will:
- go at different times of the day so that I get a better idea and obtain more accurate information about each place
- ensure my data is correct so that I can read it properly and understand exactly the results mean
- go to lots of different buildings to collect my data for building heights
- collect data on many other kinds of things for example:
look at what type of services are offered in each area, number of animals, children, men, woman, bikes…
- go on different days of the week
- Count different kinds of vehicles e.g. cars, buses, vans...
- Instead of dividing by 15 to get a per hour result we should have stayed in each location for longer than a hour to see if our results changed during different times of the day.
- However, overall, I think that the results I obtained were accurate for the time of the day that I was in each location and are able to give a good indication of the amount of vehicular traffic, pedestrian traffic and land use in each of these three different areas in Hong Kong.
