Evaluating Hong Kong’s Spatial Planning in New Towns From the Perspectives of Job Accessibility, Travel Mobility, and Work–Life Balance

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings: From the 1970s to the 1990s, the Hong Kong government developed several new towns to alleviate pressure on contemporary urban areas and provide housing for a rapidly growing population. Although self-containment is a key objective in building new towns, no research has assessed residents’ behavioral outcomes, limiting the objective assessment of the spatial planning of new towns. In this study, we hypothesize that adequate job accessibility would offer residents shorter commutes and hence more time for noncommute travel and activities and better work–life balance. Drawing on census and household travel survey data, we assess the spatial planning of new towns by investigating the effects of job accessibility on commute and noncommute travel durations. We find that a) there is a disparity in self-containment and access to job opportunities between these towns and urban areas, b) job accessibility strongly influences commute duration, and c) prolonged commutes can reduce noncommute travel duration, particularly for public transportation users, suggesting that this may harm work–life balance for workers with long commutes.

Takeaway for practice: Building a self-contained new town requires strategic spatial planning and a concrete plan to develop the local economy. To cultivate local employment, planners should develop a regional plan that differentiates main industries in different new towns. A good starting point would be a thorough understanding of the history, spatial distribution of existing industries and firms, and skills of local workers in these towns. We recommend more proactive efforts to a) establish more self-contained new town communities, b) relocate jobs in certain sectors (e.g., government offices) to new towns, c) strengthen an integrated transit system, and d) adopt alternative work schedules (e.g., telecommuting, flexible work hours) in certain industries to relieve commute burdens, improving both commute experience and work–life balance.

Keywords:

• commute
• job accessibility
• new town
• travel mobility
• work–life balance

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the three anonymous reviewers and Editor Ann Forsyth for their constructive comments and advice.

RESEARCH SUPPORT

This work was supported by the General Research Fund (GRF) of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council under grant nos. CUHK14602017 and CUHK14652516.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Notes

Notes

1 We also exclude mandatory trips (such as those related to education) from noncommute travel.

2 For reviews of the literature on job accessibility and its calculation, see Geurs and van Wee (2004) and Páez et al. (2012).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sylvia Y. He

SYLVIA Y. HE ([email protected]) is an associate professor in the Department of Geography and Resource Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Sui Tao

SUI TAO ([email protected]) is a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute of Future Cities at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Mee Kam Ng

MEE KAM NG ([email protected]) is a professor in the Department of Geography and Resource Management and an associate director of the Institute of Future Cities at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Hendrik Tieben

HENDRIK TIEBEN ([email protected]) is an associate professor in the School of Architecture at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.