INCORPORATING WALKING IN TRAVEL TO WORK: THE MEANING OF COMMUTING FOR KUALA LUMPUR COMMUNITY

Abstract

Progressive increase in the influx of privately owned vehicles and a decrease in the modal share of public transport over the years become a city-based phenomenon. Over-dependence on cars encouraged a sedentary lifestyle, an obesity epidemic, social exclusion and increased carbon footprint. Deficiencies in urban planning have created a spatial separation between employment centres and residential areas. The research focused on investigating how people construct the meaning attributed to commuting mode of travel to work. Using multiple embedded case study research approach, this research focuses on 19 semistructured interviews with employees from two neighbouring but contrasting case study areas of Kuala Lumpur. Synthesis of the employees’ experiences on their travel behaviour exposed replication logic on the way they perceived walking as part of the transportation mode of travelling to work. The implicit understanding of the walking to work includes; definition of walking to work by the communities, specific walking stages and its’ characteristic during am-pm rush hours, the travel pattern and modes of transportation from the origin point (home) to the office, and the understanding of walking benefits to their economy, environment, health and social. These results provide possibility of understanding the needs of people and to promote walking to work as part of transportation mode for commuting in order to overcome the current urban challenges.