A New Escalator on Pound Lane in Sheung Wan

The area around Tai Ping Shan Street and Po Hing Fong is considered an up-and-coming neighborhood. With its quaint cafes and quirky shops, it is not difficult to see why “PoHo”—as it’s been nicknamed by its trendy residents—has become a new favorite spot on Hong Kong Island. However, drastic changes are afoot—the District Council is spearheading a project to build an escalator along Pound Lane. The escalator, linking Tai Ping Shan Street to Bonham Road, will be roughly 200 meters long, and construction costs are estimated at $200 million.

In this low-density neighborhood, how the District Council arrived at the decision to undertake such a project was a convoluted process. In 2008, the Transport Department commissioned a consultancy study to establish an assessment system for hillside escalators and elevators proposals throughout the city—a mechanism designed to evaluate the necessity and urgency of such infrastructure. The results were announced in 2010, and the proposal to construct an escalator on Ladder Street was ranked fourth among 20 proposals. However, that plan was scrapped because Ladder Street was declared a Grade 1 historical monument. It is worth noting that the Pound Lane escalator proposal was not evaluated in the original assessment, but nonetheless, the Transport Department and Highways Department proceeded to look for other possible escalator routes in the area. Officials later tabled proposals for Pound Lane and Shing Wong Street, and the consultant concluded that Pound Lane would be a better option, as according to the report, it “serves a larger residential area and more residents.”

District Councilor Kathy Siu is the main advocate for building an escalator on Pound Lane. She offers a very simple and straightforward reason for instigating the project: to improve accessibility for local residents, especially the elderly. “Some of the elderly want an escalator because no vehicles—except taxis—can reach areas such as Tai On Terrace and Po Hing Fong,” says Siu. She claims that principals of the nearby schools and the Tung Wah Hospital management support the proposal, and she has collected roughly 400 to 500 letters from the residents in the Tai Ping Shan Street area, all calling the government to build an escalator on Pound Lane.

Improving accessibility for the elderly is a noble aim and—on the face of it—it seems to be a sound reason to green-light the project. However, an escalator may not be the best way to improve accessibility for the area’s elderly. Three years ago, the Centre for Health Protection released a report which analyzed different causes of injuries recorded in 2008. 5,400 escalator-related injuries were reported, 2,800 of which were inflicted on people aged 65 or above. In order to improve accessibility for the needy, Melissa Cate Christ, a landscape architecture professor at the University of Hong Kong, offers another suggestion. “We could redo the stairs by making them wider,” says Christ. “Installing handrails that elderly people can easily grab [will make a great difference]. Handrails have a really specific dimension that they are supposed to be [for safety],” she adds.

Siu says that the ultimate goal is to extend the escalator all the way from Robinson Road to the Sheung Wan Civic Centre—a measure that she believes will alleviate traffic congestion in the Mid-Levels. Again, although it seems logical that better pedestrian access would reduce road traffic, the example of the Central-to-Mid-Levels escalators taught us that the opposite is true. In 1994, the government conducted a “before and after study” of the Mid-Levels escalator, which found that building an escalator is ineffective in reducing traffic congestion because it does not deter motorists from driving. In 1997, the administration carried out another assessment of the escalator link. While it concluded that it is difficult to quantify the project’s economic return and social benefits, it highlighted that roads had become more congested as a result of intensified housing development in the Mid-Levels as well as the stimulated development of the area near the escalator system.

It seems that many Tai Ping Shan residents have given their stamp of approval to the project, but there is a sizeable number of inhabitants who oppose the plan. They argue that the escalator will be at odds with the peaceful ambience of the area. “Escalators encourage people to walk faster and it in turn encourages consumption. But things are different on Pound Lane. It is unfortunate that the district councilors do not see the area’s value,” says Gigi Lau, a spokeswoman for the Pound Lane Concern Group.