Towards Predicting the Walkability of Pedestrian Rail Commuters in Kuala Lumpur Conurbation

• Published in: International journal of humanities, arts and social sciences Vol. 1; no. 2; p. 48
• Main Authors: ABDUL NORLIDA HAMID, MOKHLAS, HASMI, PECK LEONG TAN, MASRIA MUSTAFA, Sham, Rohana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bridgewater KKG Publications 15.08.2015
• Subjects: Climate change; Good & evil; Kuala Lumpur Malaysia; Malaysia
• ISSN: 2415-0916; 2414-3073
• DOI: 10.20469/ijhss.20001-2

The issue of climate change and global warming has brought significant impact on human lives. One industry that contributes to the present global warming is the transportation industry. The increase in the demand for travel in urban areas has led to the increase in the number of private vehicles thereon leading to the further increase in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions particularly that of carbon dioxide (CO2). In line with this and towards increasing the public transport patronage, there need to be more focus on a more environmental-friendly form of transportation. For the pedestrian commuters who walk to the rail stations and continue their work trip by rail, good quality walkways and weather also play an important role towards influencing their travel decisions and their willingness to walk. Accordingly, the main objective of this study is to measure the extent of the relationship of physical environment, weather, safety and the rail level of service to the walkability of rail pedestrian commuters to transit station. This cross-sectional study examines the travel behaviour of the commuters who walk from their apartments to the commuter stations located within the Transit Planning Zone (TPZ) area of the Kuala Lumpur Conurbation (KLC). By conducting a purposive sampling on 301 respondents and through regression analysis, the study found that rail level of service makes the largest impact on walkability followed by weather, safety and last physical environment. Only rail level of service was a significant predictor of the walkability. It is hoped that with these findings, the planning of the future TPZ concepts will allow a better incorporation of the needs of pedestrians and its influence on the demand of rail services thereby leading to a more sustainable and integrated form of transport system.