From Pedestrians Beware to Cars Beware!

WHEN we walk from one place to another in our city, it is common to see pedestrians giving way to vehicles and weaving through roads with heavy traffic. Walking has become a hazard for urbanites as a result of the city planning that gives priority to vehicles.

According to the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA), 600,123 new vehicles were registered in Malaysia last year. This year, 458,447 more new vehicles hit the road as at September. To accommodate more vehicles, our roads are getting wider, highways have been extended and elevated. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about our pedestrian walkways and public space which are shrinking.

The alarming growth in the number of cars in our country is unlikely to change in the near future and this phenomenon has made me ponder on whether our public space should be allocated for cars or for people. By expanding the roads, we are in fact making cars happier instead of the people.

When a city space is devoted to vehicles, the opportunity for people to meet and communicate with each other reduces. The city then becomes less interactive and a less attractive place to stay in. This undermines the sense of belonging among urbanites which contradicts the efforts to make Kuala Lumpur a world-class city.

At the 4th International Conference on World Class Sustainable Cities 2012 (WCSC) held in Kuala Lumpur recently, Dr Han Gehl, a renowned architect from Denmark, opined that caring for people in the city is the key to achieving a more lively, safe, sustainable and healthy city. In that context, creating space for people to walk, mingle, communicate and interact is essential to get urbanites engaged in city life.

For instance, the municipality of Copenhagen city has been removing driving lanes and reducing parking space by 3% a year for the past 25 years to encourage walking and cycling. As a result, the number of bicycles doubled between 1995 and 2005. In 2008, statistics showed that cycling constitutes 37% of the commutation used by working class people and students. The cycling culture is so ingrained in Denmark, even the Danish Crown Prince, Frederik is known for cycling with his kids to the daycare.

In 2007, the New Road in Brighton, England was converted from a traffic street to a pedestrian-priority street. This effort led to an increase in pedestrian traffic by 62% and the number of activities increased by 600% after the conversion.

The Copenhagen city and New Road in Brighton experiences are examples of city space being used to promote a healthy and friendly environment for the people, by the people.

On the other hand, building extra roads or expanding the same is a direct invitation to buy and drive more cars. This is pretty much similar to a situation where we will tend to buy more clothes if given a larger wardrobe. Attempts to relieve traffic pressure by building more roads and parking space will instead generate more traffic and congestion.

In addition to its negative impact on the city traffic, vehicles on the road contribute greatly to air pollution in most cities across the world. According to a recent report in The New York Times, researchers from Yale and Columbia found the air in India was the world's unhealthiest, and vehicles on the road accounted for about 25% of the air pollution in New Delhi itself.

As we embark on a lot of green initiatives to make our environment and the world a better place to live, imagine what a boost it would be to this endeavour if there were an immense reduction of vehicles on the road.

Not only can we not afford to take a toll on our environment and our health, soon we can hardly afford the ever-increasing petrol cost when fossil fuel reserves start to deplete. In fact, the RM17bil allocation for fuel subsidy by the Government this year can be trimmed tremendously and contributed to other more deserving purposes such as educational and social programme, if the usage of private vehicles is reduced.

Moreover, based on the Household Expenditure Survey 2009/10, Malaysian households spent about 9% on fuel products every month. This significant figure indicates that car usage has also dampened the country's effort in creating a high income and sustainable society.

Today, even though the car is the main and only transportation for many urbanites to reach their desired destinations, the efficiency of this transportation mode is highly questionable as more cars are joining the traffic league, let alone the environmental and social impacts brought by car invasion.

There should be measures to discourage the usage of private vehicles and make people happier, in which we could look into its possibilities in my next article.

Cities should be built for people; the greatest attraction of a city is the people. I look forward to the day when people enjoy walking on pedestrian-friendly walkways, meeting friends at outdoor cafs, participating in street festivals, and a total city transformation from a smog-filled environment to a healthy atmosphere, and from “Pedestrians Beware” to “Cars Beware”. - The Star

FIABCI Asia-Pacific regional secretariat chairman Datuk Alan Tong has over 50 years of experience in property development. He is also the group chairman of Bukit Kiara Properties. For feedback, please emailfeedback@fiabci-asiapacific.com.