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Summary

With the funding support from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, The Salvation Army Ngau Tam Mei Community Development Project organised “Traffic Improvement Plan in Ngau Tam Mei” from September 2022 to January 2023. This programme was co-designed and implemented by older adults, social worker of a non-governmental organization, and The Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies of Lingnan University.

The aim of the programme was to enhance the transport accessibility at Ngau Tam Mei area, which consists of some remote villages in Yuen Long District. The traffic needs of the residents could not be satisfied by the inadequate public transport service. There were only two minibus routes and one bus route available for those remote villages, and lots of residents found it difficult to take public transportation during peak hours.

To enhance the transport accessibility of Ngau Tam Mei area the programme organised older and younger people to set up monitor points at 6 bus stops to record the frequencies of service of public transportation and the number of passengers waiting at 6 site areas during peak hours (7:00-9:30 am) in Oct 2022 and March 2023, and conducted 4 interviews with passengers to understand their needs and concerns. After collecting a vast amount of data, the programme participants created a Traffic Improvement Plan which was submitted to minibus and bus companies for the improvement of the transport accessibility and shared a report with the Yuen Long District Council.

Website: https://jcafc-ambassador.hk/afc-community-projects/

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Other target group(s): Residents in Ngau Tam Mei areas

Sector(s): Transportation

Desired outcome for older people:
Meet their basic needs

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:
  • Accessibility
  • Intergenerational activities
  • Participation

Contact details

Name: Hoi-yan TSANG

Email address: yldcadm@yldc.had.gov.hk

Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Civil Society Organisation

Others involved in the project:
  • Local authorities
  • Social or health care provider
  • Volunteers
  • Private sector
  • Research institution

How collaboration worked: The Programme was funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. The leading organisation was The Salvation Army Ngau Tam Mei Community Development Project. Older people was recruited as AFC ambassadors (community volunteers) to identify the community needs, plan and implement a community audit of the transport accessibility for the remote villages in Ngau Tam Mei area, Yuen Long District. The Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies of Lingnan University was project partner to provide advice and as a professional team to help with the creation of the Traffic Improvement Plan for the district.

Older people’s involvement: Older people helped to implement the age-friendly practice

Details on older people’s involvement: Older people were recruited to plan and implement community audit on the transport accessibility for the remote villages in Ngau Tam Mei area. They assisted in recording the frequencies of service of buses and minibuses and the number of passengers waiting during peak hours in 6 bus stops, and collected the views from passenger through questionnaires and interviews. They also helped to consolidate the findings and propose appropriate solutions to enhance transport accessibility.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: No

Do you plan to evaluate your age-friendly practice? Yes

Feedback:
Most of the older persons involved in this project are retired and they viewed transport accessibility as an issue of significance for those who live in the Ngau Tam Mei villages. The inaccessibility of public transportation caused the new generation to leave the areas and left behind older people at home. Meanwhile, due to difficulties in accessing public transportation, many older persons are also reluctant to go out to town unless required for medical consultation in the townships. The ambassadors acknowledged that the transport accessibility for the remote villages is not a new issue in Ngau Tam Mei area. In the past, the rural representatives had already discussed with the minibus operator few years ago with no big progress. In order to convince the stakeholders on the local needs scientifically, they would like to collect the data through community audit. And they also represent the villagers to present the findings to the service operators. They agreed that bottom up participation is significant for improving age-friendliness in the community and also enhanced the sense of belonging and ownership to the public affairs at the villages.

Looking back

Reflections:
For choosing the issue which related to the age-friendly practice in rural area, the local dynamic of rural representatives would also need to be considered.

Challenges:
We had 6 monitored areas in Ngau Tam Mei where we would have liked to record the frequencies of service of buses and minibuses and the number of passengers waiting during peak hours. But monitoring requires at least two volunteers in each areas. Some of our volunteers have moved to other areas and it is hard for them to go back to Ngau Tam Mei to record before 7am. Therefore we minimized the monitored areas into 3 initially. Additionally, it can be difficult for two volunteers to record all the data we need, but the data that was collected provides operators with a rough image of what needs to be addressed to improve services.