There is nothing religious or superstitious about this title. This is about the ‘Hellish’ bus and transport facilities, underneath or next to the ‘Heavenly’ designed residential, retail and commercial complexes. (上蓋為豪華住宅或商業建築物，下蓋為簡陋的公共運輸交匯處)
The story last week of KMB using a bus with its engine idling as the rest area and canteen for bus drivers at the Lok Wah bus terminal in Ngau Tau Kok (牛頭角樂華巴士總站) is just one example. Why was a resting area not designed into the bus terminal? (為何巴士總站沒有司機休息室？)
Look around our transport facilities and spot the plastic chairs and sofas. The temporary cabins, the size of portable toilets with dripping aircons. The make shift wooden boards to keep fumes away from waiting passengers, the ramshackle signage, the strange lighting. (充滿膠椅、臨時更亭、木板、簡陋指示牌及古怪的燈光亮度等。)
This is not just at old transport facilities. Brand new ones like those at Wong Chuk Hang station only meet tunnel standards for air ventilation and lighting. Bus companies and bus drivers have to bring their own chairs, their own temporary cabins, their own signs.
Step out of the MTR, the mall, homes or offices and enter the bus terminal at Hang Hau, under IFC in Central, or the ICC in Kowloon, and you enter disaster zones. Next up is the basement of the West Kowloon Cultural District. There will be public roads, parking, taxi and bus facilities, designed to the lowest cost tunnel standards, while the district on top will be built to world class urban design standards.
For the benefit of drivers and passengers, let’s make sure we design and build the spaces where we arrive and leave to the same world class standards. (需要改善公共運輸交匯處設計)
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