Actualising transit-oriented development in Malaysia

Executive summary

• Historically and presently, Malaysia’s land use and transportation policy have embedded a reliance on private vehicles. This has resulted in extended travel times borne from urban sprawl, an increase in private vehicle loans as a component of debt composition and vulnerability to mobility shocks due to fuel price instability.
• This paper explores transit-oriented development (TOD) as a solution to the problems above. This approach to urban development encourages the concentration of mixed- use zoning and pedestrian connectivity along transit corridors, encouraging public transit uptake by reducing the travel distance to key amenities.
• Key concerns are identified in the approaches by federal and state authorities. Notably, a siloed approach to urban development among ministries, as well as across federal, state and local governments, poor pedestrian infrastructure, and prohibitive zoning and by-laws. These issues encourage private vehicle use and hinder mixed use developments, and are major barriers limiting the efficacy of current approaches.
• This paper explores policy proposals in the short, medium and long term aimed at addressing gaps in Malaysia’s approach to TOD (Section 4). Particularly, laws which encourage mixed-use zoning by default, “sprawl retrofitting” to reverse the effects of urban sprawl and innovative land value capture strategies are international lessons applicable in Malaysia.
• Zoning and by-law reforms could enable mixed-use developments centred on transit hubs and to deprioritise cars. To that end, city councils are the main executor of actualising TOD-related outcomes, particularly through regulatory reforms.
• Funding is a major barrier faced by city councils in implementing TOD. It impacts on their ability to execute coordinated built environment projects, namely pedestrian infrastructure, and to conduct comprehensive built environment audits.
• At local and national levels, stakeholders are urged to coordinate their efforts. We recommend city councils to formulate workflows, which prioritise inter-departmental involvement, rather than siloed approaches to urban development. For national level policy coordination, we recommend the formation of a mobility commission to consolidate land use and transport planning-related stakeholders across all levels of governance.