The Potential Impacts of Strategic Highways on New Town Development : A Case Study of Route 3 in Hong Kong

This paper adopts the conceptual model of Sell et al. [J. Architect. Planning Res. 5(2) (1998) 145] in examining the potential impacts of Route 3 on the local community of Yuen Long new town. A questionnaire survey was conducted between 2 and 24 June 1998. 2220 Yuen Long residents were selected by a multi-stage random process. The results indicate that people's perceptions about transport improvements were significantly associated with personal (socio-cultural) attributes, such as sex, age, and industry of employment, occupation and household income. Moreover, the impacts of Route 3 on the travel behavior of local residents were expected to be highly significant. The strongest potential impacts were found among the teenagers (10–19) and the female residents. Most of the additional trips were for “shopping” (43%) and “social/recreational” (35%) purposes