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Southern District Council

Traffic and Transport Committee

Agreement No. HAD SDO 1/2017

Consultancy Study on Overall Traffic Conditions of Aberdeen

Short-term Traffic and Transport Improvement Proposals

for Aberdeen Centre

PURPOSE

1. This paper aims to report to the Traffic and Transport Committee (T&TC)

of the Southern District Council (SDC) on the suggested short-term traffic and

transport improvement measures under “Agreement No. HAD SDO 1/2017

Consultancy Study on Overall Traffic Conditions of Aberdeen” and invite

T&TC members to comment and support.

BACKGROUND

2. SDC selected "Enhancement of Traffic Conditions in Aberdeen" as one of

the projects under the District-led Actions Scheme of the Southern District. To

address the traffic problems systematically and effectively, Ho Wang SPB Ltd

is commissioned as the traffic consultant on 6 July 2017 to conduct a study on

the overall traffic conditions of Aberdeen.

3. The consultant conducted assessments on baseline traffic conditions and

the recommendations on appropriate and relatively straight forward

improvement measures including road improvement proposals and traffic and

transport improvement measures are proposed in this paper.

Annex 1

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PROBLEMS

4. Aberdeen is well served by public transport services with numerous public

transport facilities in the Aberdeen Centre and Aberdeen Main Road. There are

some bus routes passing through Aberdeen Centre at Chengtu Road and Tung

Sing Road. Some bus and GMB routes are through route with terminus not

within the local roads in Aberdeen Centre. The routes of public transport

through traffic in Aberdeen Centre would induce traffic burden and long

vehicles manoeuvring at the local narrow roads would induce pedestrian safety

problem. Long bus passing through the narrow street with numerous kerbside

activities would cause public transport delay and this would have impact on the

passenger journey time.

5. The existing on-street public transport facilities require passenger waiting

on congested footpath. Passenger queues on footpath reduce the effective width

for passing pedestrians traffic.

6. The existing traffic circulation in Aberdeen Centre requires ingress traffic

from Aberdeen Praya Road westbound to make left turn to Lok Yeung Street

from Aberdeen Main Road northbound. Ingress traffic to Sai On Street, Nam

Ning Street and Tung Sing Road can only access Lok Yeung Street to reach

various developments. Traffic from Aberdeen Praya Road westbound to

Aberdeen Praya Road eastbound for Aberdeen Tunnel bound is also required to

use the junction of Aberdeen main Road / Aberdeen Reservoir Road. Providing

alternative access to Aberdeen Centre can be considered to alleviate the traffic

queue from the junction of Aberdeen Main Road / Aberdeen Reservoir Road by

converting traffic direction at Sai On Street.

7. Since the major pedestrian route for pedestrians making trips between

Shek Pai Wan and Aberdeen Centre requires pedestrian to cross Yue Fai Road,

improving pedestrian crossing facility at Yue Fai Road would be required to

enhance pedestrian safety.

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PROPOSALS

8. CTB route no. 7 (Shek Pai Wan bound) is recommended to be diverted to

Aberdeen Main Road eastbound to reduce the traffic flows at Chengtu Road

and Tung Sing Road. Existing bus stop at Tung Sing Road will be cancelled

and a bus stop is proposed at Aberdeen Main Road near St. Peter’s Church. The

proposal is shown in Figure 1.

9. NWFB route no. 94A (Lei Tung bound) is recommended to be diverted to

Aberdeen Main Road eastbound to reduce the traffic flows at Chengtu Road

and Tung Sing Road. Existing bus stops at Chengtu Road and Tung Sing Road

will be cancelled. For Wah Fu bound, it is proposed to omit Aberdeen Main

Road to minimise journey time and reduce traffic flows at Lok Yeung Street

and Aberdeen Main Road. Existing bus stop at Lok Yeung Street will be

cancelled. The proposal is shown in Figure 2.

10. It is proposed to convert CTB route no. 98 to be a circular route and

diverted to Aberdeen Main Road westbound and Aberdeen Praya Road

eastbound. Existing bus stop at Chengtu Road will be cancelled. Bus stops are

proposed near Aberdeen Municipal Services Building (same as route no. 70A)

and Aberdeen Praya Road near Wu Nam Street Bus Terminus (same as route no.

A10). The proposal is shown in Figure 3.

11. It is proposed to divert NWFB route no. 595 to Aberdeen Main Road

westbound and Aberdeen Praya Road eastbound. Existing bus stop at Chengtu

Road will be cancelled. Bus stops are proposed near Aberdeen Municipal

Services Building (same as route no. 70A) and Aberdeen Praya Road near Wu

Nam Street Bus Terminus (same as route no. A10). For convenience of

passengers towards South Horizons, existing bus stop for CTB route no. 90B

and NWFB route no. 595 at Wu Nam Street bus terminus will be relocated to

Aberdeen Praya Road near Wu Nam Street Bus Terminus. The proposal is

shown in Figure 4.

12. CTB route no. 95C (Chi Fu Fa Yuen bound) is proposed to omit Aberdeen

Main Road to minimise journey time and reduce traffic flows at Lok Yeung

Street and Aberdeen Main Road. Existing bus stops at Lok Yeung Street and

Aberdeen Main Road southbound (Chi Fu Fa Yuen bound) will be cancelled.

The proposal is shown in Figure 5.

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13. Existing GMB route nos. 58 and 58A (Aberdeen bound) is recommended

to be diverted to Aberdeen Praya Road and omit Chengtu Road. The proposal is

shown in Figure 6.

14. It is proposed to provide an alternative access for ingress traffic from

flyover into Aberdeen, by converting the traffic direction of Sai On Street

section between Aberdeen Main Road and Chengtu Road from one-way

eastbound to one-way westbound. Ingress traffic from flyover to Nam Ning

Street (south) and Tung Sing Road can be diverted to Sai On Street and

Chengtu Road without passing through the junction of Aberdeen Main Road /

Aberdeen Reservoir Road and Lok Yeung Street. Ingress traffic route to Nam

Ning Street (north) will be same as existing. The proposal is shown in Figure

7.

15. The existing GMB stop at Sai On Street section between Chengtu Road

and Tung Sing Road is proposed to be relocated to Tung Sing Road section

between Sai On Street and Lok Yeung Street, and the existing Red Minibus

(RMB) stand at Tung Sing Road section between Sai On Street and Lok Yeung

Street is proposed to be relocated to the section of Tung Sing Road between Wu

Pak Street and Sai On Street.

16. It is proposed to introduce traffic calming measure at Yue Fai Road in the

form of build-out design to encourage pedestrians across the carriageway at

proper location. Minimum of 3.5m will be maintained for one traffic lane. The

proposal is shown in Figure 8.

TRAFFIC IMPLICATIONS

17. Existing passengers affected by proposed re-routing are required to walk to

the maintained bus stop or proposed bus stop. The reprovided bus stops are

within walkable distance of 400m with the existing bus stop. Considering the

pedestrian route has minimal level-difference, it is anticipated that the impact

to passenger would not be significant.

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18. After diverting the bus and GMB routes, the traffic flows at Chengtu Road

can be reduced by about 30 to 40 veh/hour (about 60 to 80 passenger car

unit/hour (pcu/hour)) in different assessment periods which is about 20% to

30% of total traffic flows in pcu at Chengtu Road. The traffic flows at Tung

Sing Road can be reduced by about 7 veh/hour (about 18 pcu/hour) which is

about 5% to 6% of total traffic flows in pcu at Tung Sing Road.

19. After implementation of the above proposals, the Level-of-Service for

footpaths at Chengtu Road, Lok Yeung Street and passenger waiting area at Wu

Nam Street Bus Terminus will be improved to achieve LOS C1.

ADVICE SOUGHT

20. Members are invited to comment on the proposal. Subject to member’s

support, the proposals will be passed to Transport Department for

implementations.

Ho Wang SPB Limited

March 2018

Figures

Figure 1 Proposed Re-routing of CTB Route no. 7 Shek Pai Wan Bound

Figure 2 Proposed Re-routing of NWFB Route no. 94A

Figure 3 Proposed Re-routing of CTB Route no. 98

Figure 4 Proposed Re-routing of NWFB Route no. 595 and Relocation of

CTB Route no. 90B Bus Stop

Figure 5 Proposed Re-routing of CTB Route no. 95C Chi Fu Fa Yuen Bound

Figure 6 Proposed Re-routing of GMB Routes nos. 58 and 58A Aberdeen

Bound

Figure 7 Proposed Conversion of Sai On Street to One-way Westbound

Direction

Figure 8 Proposed Traffic Calming Measure at Yue Fai Road

1 Level-of-Service (LOS) in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM-version 2000) is used to assess the

width of footpath for pedestrian movements. The HCM LOS is primarily based on the density of

people in a given space and has six levels. In general, LOS C is desirable for most design at streets with

dominant ‘living’ pedestrian activities.