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Numerous cities are undergoing the ageing of populations. Developing a transport system that incorporates mobility needs, preferences, and demands of elderly people is crucial to such a demographic shift. Understanding the travel behavior and characteristics of elderly people is the first and foremost step towards this goal. In stark contrast with Western car-dominant places, numerous East Asian modern cities (e.g., Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai) have high levels of public transportation use. Experience gained from existing studies in the West cannot be applied to Hong Kong, a typical transit-dependent city. In light of this, based on the 2011 Travel Characteristic Survey data and Poisson and negative binomial regression models, this study identifies factors that significantly affect the number of daily trips taken by (or trip frequency of) elderly people in Hong Kong. The paper finds that both socio-demographic (e.g., age and housing type) and built environment characteristics significantly affect the trip number of elderly people. Interestingly, it is determined that car availability does not play a significant role in the trip generation process, but public transportation accessibility truly matters. This outcome remarkably differs from findings in Western car-dominant cities. Moreover, to discern whether the elderly are a homogenous group, this study estimates separate models for the young elderly (aged between 60 and 74) and the very old (aged 75 or above). It is observed that the effect of public transportation accessibility on elderly mobility varies among elderly subgroups: public transportation accessibility significantly affects the trip frequency of the young elderly, but not that of the very old. Finally, a multitude of policy measures with the aim of upgrading elderly mobility is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population aging is happening in many places, such as on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong. Hong Kong, with the second-highest percentage of older adults in Asia, is among the world's fastest-aging societies. Moreover, the city has very high transit patronage: transit trips constitute approximately 90% of all trips. Given the significance of transit in Hong Kong, improving transit services for older adults is of substantial importance. In light of this, based on the data of transit satisfaction (or perception) collected by a questionnaire survey in March 2015 (N=613), this study adopts the entropy weight method to determine the importance weights of an array of transit service quality attributes (e.g., seat availability and travel stability). Then, it performs an index-based importance-satisfaction (I-S) analysis using the outcome of the previous step as a basis to determine priorities for transit service improvement. The results show that in the view of older adults, three service quality attributes in need of improvement are seat availability, waiting conditions, and service frequency. Accordingly, the paper puts forward policy implications for further implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly 40 years of reform and opening up witnesses the remarkable achievements of economic cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. The economic relations among Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao have evolved from a unitary pattern of "front shop and back factory" orienting at regional labor division at an earlier stage to a combination of multiple patterns including the "factory and shop combined" pattern. The regional scope has been expanded and the connotation of cooperation has been enriched. After entering into the 21st century, Hong Kong, who is experiencing its economic transformation, faces the challenges brought about by the thriving of service industry in Guangdong Province. The three areas have been fighting over the hinterland through infrastructures connection and optimization, in order to realize an expansion of economic development space that can break through the restriction of land resources. In addition, under the background of strategies of the "Belt & Road Initiative" and "internationalization of the RMB," financial cooperation becomes the development emphasis at the third stage of economic cooperation among the three regions. When their economic relations change, the spatial pattern among Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao gradually shifts from "concentrating on a small scale and dispersing on a large scale" toward "dispersing on a small scale and concentrating on a large scale." Based on an analysis on the development direction of the economic relations among Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao in the future, the paper points out that the regional cooperation will transit from disperse development to border breaking, the region will develop from a livable bay area to a world-level bay area, and the spatial pattern will develop from center-hinterland to hub-network, which ultimately realizes a spatial response to the transition of economic relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes a systematic analysis on the development characteristics and evolution process of the built-up areas, as well as the substructure of the network connectivity and the functional division, of core cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao region from the dual perspectives of "space of places" and "space of flows." It does so by using data of satellite remote sensing and industrial census to describe the spatial development trend and to establish an urban connectivity network based on the headquarter-branch data of enterprises. It also reveals the development differences within and outside of the Bay Area in Guangdong Province. The research shows that, firstly, since the new century, the integration of the Bay Area has become more obvious for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao region, as it has developed in a highly-concentrated way around the Bay Area of the Pearl River Estuary. Secondly, Guangdong, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macao exhibited a more obvious regional division of labor, and their functions have been increasingly complementary to each other. Thirdly, a regional hub of "two sectors" - linking outside to the world city network and driving internal development of regional hinterland has been formed. Finally, based on the conclusion of the empirical research, development and planning implications of the Bay Area are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is an important part of China's national strategy in the new era. This paper reviews the process of cross-border planning collaboration in this area, from functional division to institutional coordination. However, this process is still constrained by problems such as having few platforms and channels of collaboration, too much reliance on the provincial government, limited measures of collaboration, and weak coordination on the issues concerning core interests. It argues that the orientation should be building an open collaboration framework with multi-party participation and the specific strategies should include establishing a multi-level and multi-party planning collaboration framework, promoting the planning integration of three metropolitan areas, co-building a unified international quality life circle, promoting the co-building and co-sharing of strategic areas, and exploring diversified measures of planning collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]