Urban Design and Active-Transport
Muhamad Razuhanafi Mat Yazid1, Mohd Azizul Ladim2
1Muhamad Razuhanafi Mat Yazid, Politeknik Ungku Omar Jalan Raja Musa Mahadi, Ipoh, Perak.
2Mohd Azizul Ladim, School of Engineering & Information Technology, University, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
Manuscript received on January 15, 2015. | Revised Manuscript received on February 04, 2015. | Manuscript published on February 28, 2015. | PP: 132-135 | Volume-4 Issue-3, February 2015. | Retrieval Number: C3761024315/2013©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Active transport is vital to ensure urban living in a clean, healthy and quality environment. Today, rapid motorisation in Malaysia has been associated with congestion and accidents. Besides, carbon gas emission is polluted the environment and grossly affect people’s quality of life. This study is aimed to introduce a new approach to change the attitude of urban population to shift to active transport for short trips. The study employed a survey method, where a set of questionnaire was distributed to 400 samples involved population of five sub-districts in Kota Bharu, which is within 12 km radius from the city centre. The data indicated that almost 100% of the respondents and their households use passive transport for daily activities. Whereas 52% of respondents agreed to switch to active transport and the rest did not agree. Maximum distance to walk is not more that 5 km radius and cycling 10 km. Willingness to shift to active transport based on state preference survey is greatly influence by urban design that foster safety and closeness between activity centres. A study using Theory Planned Behaviour has shown that the highest positive value are health benefits (0.95), the influence of neighbours and close friends (0.95) and travel time to reach the destination (0.93). These two studies indicated that the willingness of Kota Bharu residences to shift to active transport are greatly influenced by compact urban design with open, wide and direct active transport facilities and good neigh bourhood environment.
Keywords: Theory planned behavior, Passive transport, Active transport, Cycling, Walking, Urban design.