Oren Tatcher
Oren Tatcher is an architect and planner who specialises in airports and urban mobility. He is a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design and teaches at the Master in Urban Design and Transportation programme at the University of Hong Kong.
Oren Tatcher is an architect and planner who specialises in airports and urban mobility. He is a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design and teaches at the Master in Urban Design and Transportation programme at the University of Hong Kong.
While cross-border flights, emergency services and deliveries to outlying islands may make sense, other services just won’t fly in a dense city environment.
The design practices behind Hong Kong’s infrastructure lead to pedestrians yielding to vehicles despite pro-pedestrian trends taking hold around the world. Compromises such as lower speeds and more vigilance in busy pedestrian areas will mean safety and pedestrian convenience are no longer mutually exclusive.
Hong Kong has neither the structure of mainland cities able to follow a zero-Covid policy, nor the space of Western countries that are living with the virus. Its exit strategy must therefore draw on the knowledge of urban planners as well as medical experts, and combine the best practices of both approaches.
Hong Kong is right in not rushing to embrace the trend of automated vehicles, as their introduction is likely to reinforce the lamentable segregation of people and vehicles in the city’s urban planning.
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