Place-based assessment of sociability of shopping streets in the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, Malaysia

The functions of streets as social places have been undermined by the emergence of modern shopping malls that focus on indoor social activities. Streets mainly use as channels for vehicular movement rather than spaces for social activities due to the dominance of car-oriented environment. In the context of Kuala Lumpur city, in spite of the high intensity of pedestrians in the main shopping streets, low social activities observed. The lack of social activities in the main shopping streets could be due to the quality of the physical and the social environmental characteristics. The aim of the research is to determine the street sociability based on the assessment of the people-based and place-based characteristics of selected shopping streets in Kuala Lumpur. This study employs quantitative research methods. This quantitative cross-sectional study uses two sets of questionnaire surveys to examine SL, PL sociability attributes besides ISL in four main shopping streets namely Jalan Bukit Bintang, Jalan Masjid India, Jalan Petaling and Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. The result obtained using sets of statistical analysis such as: descriptive statistics, correlation, multiple and logit regression, factor analysis, pairwise comparison using SPSS Ver.16 and ANP Super Decision Ver. 2.8.0. The finding of this study lists and orders the level of importance of the SL and PL sociability attributes based on street users’ priorities. The finding suggests the safety of crime and traffic and spatial accessibility as the top SL priorities while free entry places, or eateries and services for cheaper prices is the top PL priorities. This study compares two sociability assumptions including peoples’ priorities regarding the importance of the sociability attributes and the existing situation of the shopping streets. The finding indicates that the sociability attributes of the street layout do not correspond to the peoples’ priorities regarding the importance of the SL/PL sociability attributes. This study highlights the positive contribution of ISL on integrated sociability at both street-level and place-level. The findings of this study provide a better understanding of the SL and PL characteristics, which support the effort to bring back social activities to the streets as responsive social spaces while meeting the criteria of the Kuala Lumpur as a world class city. Thus, it introduces a practical method in assessing and predicting street sociability in the context of major cities in Malaysia. In addition, the use of the ANP method expands the body of knowledge in the field of urban planning and design regarding place sociability considering users’ priorities of a place.

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