CAMPUS WALKABILITY IN MALAYSIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES: A CASE-STUDY OF UNIVERSITI MALAYA

Abstract

Universities are important innovation hubs for sustainable development. As universities worldwide are striving to provide conducive living and learning environments for their students and staff, the mobility of campus users is one of the challenges that have to be overcome immediately. In order to understand the issues of campus mobility, this study was conducted to evaluate a component of mobility, i.e. its walkability features and potential. The location of this study was in Universiti Malaya. We divided the study in two stages: 1. Students’ surveys to find out their perceptions on the features, potential and policy on walkability. 2. Direct observations and measurements of the existing walkability conditions (vehicular and pedestrian circulation and the street elements that constitute a walkable environment). The main findings were as follows: Most students perceived the overall walkability environment at UM did not give them a positive walking experience on campus. Street elements that are user-friendly were found to be lacking although there existed some positive ones, e.g. traffic calming devices especially at pedestrian crossing area. Although this is a case study of UM, we feel that the issues are of general interest to other university campuses, especially those located in major cities and having the same organizational structure. We would therefore recommend university management to conduct periodical campus walkability evaluation and to take the user’s perceptions seriously so as to provide better adaptation solutions to their campus sustainability projects.