Neighbourhood design and Vmt: is Malaysia planning to achieve the spirit of new urbanism?

Urban population currently represents sixty eight percents of the total population of Malaysia, doubling its value of thirty three percents in 1970. By the year 2020, when Malaysia plans to achieve industrialised-nation status, about two thirds of the population will be in urban areas living in mass-produced housing schemes first constructed in the 1970s. Although travel modes have changed significantly in Malaysia along with the changes in the physical design of these housing areas, very little is known about how the changes influence household vehicle-mile-travelled or VMT. The effects of neighbourhood design on VMT are an important aspect to consider in our effort to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Thus, this paper presents the findings of a study carried out in the City of Johor Bahru, within the designated economic growth area of Iskandar Malaysia, to understand how the change in neighbourhood designs over the decades due to policies and lifestyles influences VMT. Fifty two residential neighbourhoods representing several decades from 1970s to the 2000s were selected and travel diaries of their randomly selected households were recorded. While the results obtained confirm the prevalent theory on the relationship between neighborhood design and VMT, unfortunately for the study area the average VMT has been increasing with the newlydesigned neighborhoods. Increasing wealth and mobility apparently has seen increasing demand for neighborhood designs that are not as compact as the traditional ones and not as ‘mixed uses’ either. While the rest of the world is going for ‘new urbanism’, Malaysia which embraced its form of ‘new urbanism’ called ‘mixed development’ since 1970s is doing the opposite. As population of Johor Bahru is rapidly growing due to its location in the economic growth area of Iskandar Malaysia, serious rethinking of the current development policies is in order

Travel emission profile of Iskandar Malaysia neighbourhoods from pre-1980s to 2000s

Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT), an indicator of travel levels on the roadway system mainly by private vehicles, has been widely used in urban planning to help indicate CO2 emission due to changes in built environment. Bordering Singapore to the south, neighbourhood development has been constantly happening in Johor Bahru since 1980's. These neighbourhood developments are believed to have undergone a continuous layout design evolution affecting its land use distribution, road network design, and density. Thus, this paper investigates the quiet influence of neighbourhood design, as it evolves over the decades on VMT and eventually travel carbon emission. Twenty two residential neighbourhoods representing several decades from pre-1980s to the 2010s were selected and travel diaries of their randomly selected households were recorded. Findings from this study reveal that travel carbon emission for pre-1980s residential areas is only 8.7 kilograms/household/day with a daily travel range of 40 km/day. However, the amount increases up to 21.8 kilograms/household/day for 2010s houses with daily travel range of 100 km/day. Car usage among residents in Iskandar Malaysia is undoubtly increasing as car ownership proportion increases from 0.8 in pre-1980s to 2.37 in 2010s. Number and distance of vehicles trip can be reduced by organizing activities in compact communities rather than in auto dependent suburbs. In addition, a carbon emission reduction of up to 10 percent may result from a change in land use approach alone while additional reductions will result from employing other strategies such as transit investment, fuel pricing, and parking charges