Zakiah Ponrahono

Assessing disparities in the urban-rural service: A case of public bus services in Peninsular Malaysia

An understanding of bus service disparities between urban and rural settlements is necessary to provide the best approach to improving and providing an efficient public transportation system in the country. An efficient public transportation system will contribute towards sustainable economic growth and healthy social development of the district, which, in turn, will ensure human security in respect of the mobility of goods and services for today’s and future needs. However, limited studies that analyse the service gap and local demand for the public bus service in Peninsular Malaysia have been conducted. The improvement in bus service reliability depends on several parameters including the route coverage and schedule. This study presents an empirical analysis of the fixed-route hour level of service (LOS) for urban and rural bus services to understand the level of reliability and quality of the service provided. A field survey was conducted to collect the secondary data concerning the bus routes and schedules from the local bus operators. Through a sampling survey of bus lines in selected urban and rural settlements in Peninsular Malaysia, service reliability based on the fixed-route hour service is evaluated. A total of nine (9) bus companies with a total of 48 routes were selected to represent nine (9) bus terminals operating in Johor, Penang, Pahang and Perak. Johor represents the southern states, while Penang represents the northern states. For the east-coast states, Pahang is selected, while Perak represents a still developing state, which is yet to reach the advanced level of large conurbations. The distance of a bus route from the origin to the destination is also analysed. A standard service quality measure is referred to in determining the level of service (LOS) and for identifying the service disparities between urban and rural settlements. The results indicate that the LOS for the fixed-route hour of bus services in the rural areas range from C to D and B to E in the urban settlement. The recommendations put forward include the improvement of real-time scheduling of buses, expansion of service hours and revised fare systems to ensure the future sustainability of the urban and rural bus services in Malaysia.

Integrated land use-transportation approach in controlling the growth of urban sprawl using remote sensing and GIS application

Integrated land use-transportation approach in urban planning has provided a new direction in urban sprawl studies. The spatial analysis of the current land use will provide an insight of the development density and the effect of active transportation activities on urban sprawl growth. This paper focuses on the integrated land use-transportation approach in controlling the urban sprawl by assimilating the application of remote sensing and GIS with Land Use Geospatial Indices (LUGI). Remote sensing and GIS is applied in measuring the phases of urban sprawl growth focusing on the aspect of the land use-transportation relationship. Two components of LUGI; 1) strip sprawl and 2) leapfrog development sprawl are designated to measure the spatial interruption caused by the urban sprawl. Strip and leapfrog analyses are useful in determining the existence of urban sprawl from the transportation perspectives. Transportation elements of road hierarchy and geometric, as well as transportation infrastructure are included as variables in the measurement process to validate the indication of both types of sprawl. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is chosen as the study area. Currently, the city served as capital and premier location that accommodates the regional headquarters of national and multinational business companies. Thus, the rapid population growth has contributed to the growth of urban sprawl in Kuala Lumpur, yet there are no substantial measures to identify the type, pattern and how to kerb it. The findings proved that Kuala Lumpur is currently facing the urban sprawl issues pertinent to the two components of LUGI calculated. These geospatial indices sprawl not only occurred at the city fringe but currently transpired within the city as well. The integrated land use-transportation approach is necessary for controlling the settlement development within the city to reduce the sprawling effects to the land use density and transportation system.

PUBLIC BUS LEVEL OF SERVICE PERFORMANCE IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA: CORRELATION ANALYSES ON LEVEL OF SERVICE (LOS) AND PASSENGERS’ SATISFACTION LEVEL

This study explore the stage bus performance of 48 routes within selected urban and regional settlements in Peninsula Malaysia, using a quantitative traffic engineering measure known as Level of Service standards or LOS and validated through the evaluation of passengers’ satisfaction level. The findings on the level of service (LOS) highlight the poor performance of the urban and rural bus service with the tolerable threshold below D. There are clear disparities on LOS and passenger satisfaction level between the urban and rural bus operation systems in terms of frequency, operation hour, bus speed, and passengers’ load threshold Keyword: Level of Service (LOS), stage bus, passengers’ satisfaction Date Received: 30 April 2016 Date of Acceptance: 30 October 2016 Zakiah Ponrahono, Syahriah Bachok, Mariana Mohamed Osman, Mansor Ibrahim, & Muhammad Faris Abdullah Public Bus Level of Service Performances in P. Malaysia: Correlation Analyses on LOS and Passengers’ Satisfaction Level

Parents' perception on children safe distance: A case study of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor

Rapid development in Malaysia has lead the family institution to experience challenges in ensuring safety of the family members. The safety of children is a serious matter and currently parents tend to be more vigilant on the issues of safety among children. Overall, the study focus on the safe distance allowed by parents or adult families member of their children to travel from their homes to the public places such as schools, shopping mall, public facilities, bus stations and parks. This study adopted quantitative analysis of face to face questionnaire survey distributed to 4,500 respondents in the Klang Valley. The sampling techniques for the data collection were stratified and simple random sampling method. From this study, it was found that the main factors that influenced parents and guardians to allow their children to travel alone or by group are the children age. Based on the analysis, majority of parents and guardians do not allow their children to go to public places especially at night and alone.