USER’S PREFERENCE AND PERCEPTION ON THE PEDESTRIAN CROSSING IN MALAYSIA: THE CASE OF AMPANG ROAD, KUALA LUMPUR

Abstract

The issue of road accident among pedestrian is highly emotional and raising a very strong interest within the public, and the media, mainly due to the victims are often children and elderly people. However, most of the pedestrians are lack in interest of using the pedestrian crossing. Thus, a study on the perception and preference of the pedestrian on the pedestrian crossing was being carried out in Ampang Road, Kuala Lumpur as a case study. The objectives of the study are to analyze pedestrians’ preference and perception on the various types of pedestrian crossing and to conclude findings and construct strategic recommendation based on the findings. The study has been carried out on three (3) types of pedestrian crossing in Ampang Road which are overhead crossing, underpass crossing and signalised crossing. This study involved with questionnaire survey on the total of 92 respondents, and on-site observation by researcher. Statistical analysis has been carried out, i.e. the frequency, mean and percentage. There are three (3) major findings in this study. The most chosen type of pedestrian crossing is the overhead crossing. However, the underpass crossing was given the best score in term of the quality of the pedestrian crossing (based on the respondents’ perception). Meanwhile, the signalised crossing is the most preferable type of crossing. The reasons and the explanation were discussed in the paper. The study is concluded with strategic recommendation for pedestrian crossing planning.