ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the planning framework and processes within which Hong Kong's road-based public transport services, accounting for 90 per cent of daily trips, are formulated. The concept of the passenger-car-unit is extended to public transport planning so that the modes' passenger carrying efficiencies can be estimated. The hierarchical approach to public transport provision has very much influenced the planning of transport facilities in Hong Kong. New routes, and improvements to existing ones, were introduced in response to demand or to suppress the demand for informal public transport modes, such as public light buses (PLBs), illegal passenger-carrying goods vehicles and pak-pai cars. The recommended bus networks in many public transport studies conducted in Hong Kong in the 1970s were based on the bus-bus and feeder-trunk networks. Hong Kong's PLBs have a 16 per cent share of the public transport market.
