The performance of railway service influences the living qualities of people in Hong Kong. This dissertation is a study to discover the pedestrian friendliness of R+P Stations and Non R+P Stations with different backgrounds. MTR stations that surveyed include two R+P Stations in new generation (Kowloon Station and Tsing Yi Station), one R+P Station in old generation (Tsuen Wan Station) and one Non R+P Station (Tsim Sha Tsui Station). A roadway characteristic-based PLOS model that following point system of analyzing is developed based on the requirements of planning and design standards in Hong Kong. From the data result, pedestrian walking environment of existing MTR stations have good quality in general. Factors that influence the overall pedestrian friendliness of MTR station catchments area include the construction time of the station, development time for streets the sidewalks along and number of walkways connecting to R+P properties the station have. Advantages and disadvantages of walking environment of each station are discovered. Recommendations for building a more pedestrian friendly city of Hong Kong are given based on the data results. Recommendations include quantification of the design standards, future works to solve the existing walking problems and encouraging more R+P Stations and urban renewal projects. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Contrary to the significance that HSBC and its comprador office made on the modernisation in China at the turn of the 19th and the 20th Century, studies about the Bank’s expansion in the Beijing-Tianjin area were exceptionally limited. In this research, the importance of HSBC’s expansion to North China in the 1880s will be primarily examined by the Bank and its comprador office’s roles in the railways development in North China. During this process, Wu Jim-pah, as the first comprador of HSBC in Tianjin, offered significant aids in establishing HSBC’s collaboration with the Qing Court and the influential Bei-yang Ministry under Li Hong-zhang’s administration. This research is going to examine Wu Jim-pah’s career and personal development in late Qing Huizhou, Suzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin and Beijing, so as to answer a series of questions related to China’s social-economic reforms and its earliest capitalists’ formation at the turn of the centuries. Moreover, acts as the first academic study focusing on Wu Jim-pah’s participation in the early modernisation projects of late Qing China, this research put the collection and classification of historical materials in the central place. The findings of primary resources from the archives in China and overseas, namely, the Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica in Taipei, the National Library of China, the Shanghai Library, the Southwest Jiao-tong University, the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences (TASS), the HSBC Group Archives, London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), as well as the Public Record Office at Kew, London, could be regarded as the most valuable part of this research. / published_or_final_version / Humanities and Social Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Transportation planning initiatives are assumed to further the development of growing cities across the globe. Latin American cities, especially, suffer from a deficit of infrastructure that presents greater challenges to the efficient movement of people and goods, which makes transportation one of the biggest hindrances to development in Latin America. Throughout the twentieth century, development projects in the Dominican Republic were carried out in the contexts of foreign military occupation and state repression, whereby processes of technical modernization arrived alongside state-led violence. Meanwhile, grandiose infrastructure projects were paired with narratives of national greatness. Decisions regarding land use and distribution of public services remained inattentive of the poorest residents, causing enormous inequalities in increasingly urbanized cities. President Leonel Fernández campaigned for his third term promising to break from old forms of corruption, and has symbolically delivered this promise of progress through the construction of a new subway system. The Santo Domingo Metro revolutionizes transportation options in key areas of a chaotic and congested road system, where many public transportation vehicles are old and dilapidated. Metro can save hours in commute times, provide safe, reliable transit at low cost, and promote sustainability. However, critics note that billions of dollars invested on Metro expansion preempt the funding of health and education. Construction processes displace neighborhoods, while many communities situated near the stations still face daily hardships associated with inadequate housing and lack of sanitation. My paper blends the perspectives of technical transportation planning and critical development theory to understand whether the Metro will serve these communities by improving their access to services, schools, and job sites, or simply drain scarce funds from these very areas. This paper also critically evaluates the way that the current administration‘s symbol of progress at times mirrors the top-down political culture of the past. The Metro thus elucidates larger theoretical and practical questions regarding the interactions of transportation planning and political culture, and their impacts on spatial hierarchies and growth within urban spaces. / text

The United States as a whole is embarking on the historic task of implementing high-speed rail (HSR) throughout the country in an attempt to improve regional mobility, including congestion at some of the nation’s busiest airports. However, despite the wide overlapping of service that both air and HSR provide and the goal of reducing airport congestion, little discourse has occurred on the topic of how these two modes might interact in an intermodal context. This report explores how air travel and HSR might cooperate in the US, which is defined as an explicit attempt by the two modes to utilize each other in order to transport a passenger to their final destination. It will document potential benefits of cooperation, survey how cooperation works elsewhere in the world, and investigate the current climate within the US for cooperation, including a review of current HSR plans and analysis of air travel data. This information will form the basis for suggested airports for the integration of HSR and air travel, and for how US airlines might utilize HSR. Lastly, lessons learned will form a list of best practices to follow in order to better insure a cooperative and successful relationship between HSR and air travel. / text

published_or_final_version / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

published_or_final_version / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

published_or_final_version / Industrial Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

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