Feasibility Study on Walkable City through Implementation of Car-Free Zones and its Effect on Traffic Movement in Georgetown, Penang Using GIS Network Analysis

Abstract

For many years of vehicle technology developments, people have a tendency to not be separated from it. Excessive reliance on vehicle especially personal cars causes large span of available spaces were dominated by it. This situation has led to many significant issues in both urban and rural area which include congestion, safety on the road, and environmental sustainability issues. In order to cater these degrading issues, the car free and walkable city concept was applied in this study. Through these concept, sequential reduction in the number of cars on the roads and shifting of people's mode of transportation would be possible. The principle of walkability together with limitations of vehicle accessibility area as the criteria in car-free spatial modelling is applied and presented in terms of maps showing the areas to be designed as car-free zone. The percentage of Georgetown's pedestrianized streets is determined in conjunction with an evaluation of the impact of car-free zones on the route, distance and time of travel, and also its traffic impact projections around the area. It is found from the results that every localized traffic has a longer traveling distance and much slower pace. However, the travel time is sometimes reduced due to the roads that have been diverted to allow for a higher travel speed.