ROAD ACCESSIBILITY AND SAFETY ANALYSIS IN GATED AND NON-GATED HOUSING COMMUNITIES

Abstract

The relationship between crime and the built environment has been extensively investigated in the field of urban design and planning. Gated housing area refers to a physical personal area with limited access and is governed by special rules, restricting or controlling access to and outside of the homeowner (via electronic devices or with the safety of workers). Therefore, gated housing communities are assumed to be safer than non-gated housing communities in relation to crime occurrence with limited road point accessibility which is deemed reliable to prevent undesirable property crime. The purpose of this research is to analyse the property crime incidents in gated and non-gated housing communities of Subang Jaya, Selangor with regards to road accessibility points. Three years of crime surveillance data from 2014 to 2016 was obtained from the Royal Malaysian Police Department. Findings indicated that crime incident is less at the gated community as compared to non-gated with the most of the hot spot area are located at the multiple road points access such as Subang Perdana Good Year Court 7 and few USJ, Subang Jaya housing areas and also the residential area which located nearest to the above stated locations as opposed to the gated housing community.