Hong Kong Tops Global Sustainable Cities Mobility Index
Hong Kong leads the world for sustainable transport, according to the 2017 Sustainable Cities Mobility Index from Arcadis, a global design and consultancy for natural and built assets. The index was compiled for Arcadis by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr) and explores mobility through three pillars of sustainability – social (People), environmental (Planet) and economic (Profit) – to develop an indicative ranking of 100 of the world’s cities.
Boosted by its innovative and well-connected metro network and a high share of trips taken by public transport, Hong Kong manages to achieve many of the aims of an effective urban transport system – enabling comprehensive mobility, creating economic opportunity and enriching the lives of citizens, business and tourists alike.
Cities benefiting from ‘money, mass or maturity’, namely high wealth, significant global cities, do not necessarily lead the ranking in sustainable urban mobility. Although these factors can help, we do see wealthy, large and/or older cities not automatically punching their ticket to sustainable urban mobility.
Aside from Hong Kong, two other Asian cities rank highly, taking two of the remaining top ten spots and matching the results of the 2016 Sustainable Cities Mobility Index. Modern metro systems, large airports and low usage of private vehicles help boost the rankings of developed Asian cities such as Seoul (4th) and Singapore (8th). It is however, a tale of two halves in Asia as other cities would score higher were it not for damaging levels of urban pollution and emissions while metropolises such as Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur are some of the world’s least sustainable for mobility.
European cities dominate the top of the overall Index, occupying seven of the leading ten spots. Zurich, Paris and Prague are the highest placed European cities, ranking second, third and fourth respectively, with strong scores in the Planet and Profit sub-indices due to established infrastructure, efficient metro systems and commitment to green technology.
North American cities are spread throughout the overall Index; while citizens of some American cities enjoy well-funded and comprehensive transport systems, many cities in the U.S. and Canada are undermined by a reliance on private vehicles and underdeveloped public transport options.
The full findings can be found here.
