The government says it has a “minimal approach” to railing deployment, yet under a walkability pledge has only removed around 11.4 km of its 1,500 km total

Transport Department (TD) has retired just 11.4 km of road railings under its “Walk in HK” initiative, the government revealed today, with another 1,824 unnecessary road signs removed to declutter pavements.

The removed railings, around 0.76% of Hong Kong’s total 1,500 km railing length, were earmarked for removal after a 2019 government pledge to improve walkability in the city.

Revealing the latest figures today in LegCo, Hong Kong’s transport chief Lam Sai-hung said the work is ongoing.

“Currently, the TD adopts a ‘minimal approach’ in the provision of pedestrian railings which aims at stripping away excessive railings that are not bringing value to the implementation of the policy of enhancing walkability of the pedestrian environment and reducing street cluttering, with a view to releasing more road space for pedestrians on footpaths,” he told lawmakers.

Lawmaker Judy Chan says the government can try to improve the walking experience

The news came in response to a question from Election Committee lawmaker Judy Chan, who asked the Secretary for Transport and Logistics for a progress report on the government’s walkability programmes.

Chan told Transit Jam she was moved to ask the question after finding many difficulties walking around Central and Western District.

“I do find many of our pedestrian pavements are very narrow and too close to traffic, which I understand is not something easy to change, but the government can at least try to improve the walking experience by grouping or even removing some signage poles, as we just have too many of them from all different departments,” she said.

Photos from lawmaker Judy Chan show some of the many challenges for pedestrians in Hong Kong. Chan says clearing redundant government street clutter would be a good start (photos: Judy Chan)

Chan supplied Transit Jam dozens of pictures showing pedestrian hazards in a local neighbourhood, including extremely narrow pavements in Mid-Levels not even wide enough for a single pedestrian; and narrow pavements blocked by litter bins, road signs or illegally dumped garbage – common problems for everyone navigating Hong Kong on foot.

Hong Kong’s railing obsession has been widely criticised in the past: in 2021, road safety expert and UN Special Advisor Julian Kwong told Transit Jam that “vertical bar” railings were not recommended for roadsides as they reduced visibility when viewed at speed and created a tunnel-vision effect for drivers. Railings may also create a false sense amongst drivers that the road belongs entirely to them, he said.

During civil unrest in 2019, around 60 km of railings had been removed by protestors or later taken down by authorities to prevent their use as weapons or blockades.

Some of those removals led to danger spots: protest vandalism at the Pedder Street tram stop, for example, meant westbound tram passengers would exit straight onto a bus lane.

But a huge majority of those removals proved popular with locals, who found new “shortcuts” across previously unnavigable landscapes.

At the time, the government said it would spend around $15 million replacing the damaged or removed railings but would embark on the new initiative to find areas where they could open up roadsides to pedestrians.

Nevertheless, walkability campaigners often found the bureaucracy hard to handle, with specific requests such as keeping a cleared Percival Street crossing free denied without reason or comment.