Transit oriented neighbourhood for better environmental health

Abstract

Encouraging higher usage of urban public transport has become the focus of Malaysian Government to alleviate traffic congestion. However, the usage of public transport has declined from 34% in year 1985 to 16% in year 2003 [1]. In this regards, the target to achieve the ratio of 30∶70 has been set to improve the public and private transport split under the 9 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">th</sup> Malaysian Plan by doubling up the budget for urban transport to RM 1.5 billion [1]. Public transport infrastructure development without the integration of transit oriented development may not attain the objective of reducing car dependency. Besides the traffic congestion, the major problem from the car oriented development is the air emission from transportation sector. Mobile sources (transportation) are the major air pollution sources in Malaysia especially in urban area. Previous studies were clearly showing a negative impact on human health due to air pollution especially on respiratory and cardiac illness. This paper discusses the study which was carried out to identify the relationship between urban landuses, air quality and human health with Kuala Lumpur as study area. Air quality sampling and household survey were carried out for the data collection. Besides, another study had also been carried out in three areas in Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur to identify the applicability of transit oriented development principles in Malaysian neighbourhood context. This study was also using household sampling survey as method of data collection. Findings from the studies have shown that, human health and air quality are clearly related to urban landuses. The principles of transit oriented development are applicable in local neighbourhood context.