Sustainability of Public Transportation in Kuching City, Sarawak

• Main Authors: Nor Amaleena, Binti Mazlan, Wong, Swee Kiong, Regina Garai, Abdullah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universal Publishers 2021
• Subjects: H Social Sciences (General); HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/35480/1/V13N2-10.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/35480/; http://www.gbmrjournal.com/vol13no2.htm

Progressing towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in particular SDG11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities, the role of public transportation in ensuring smooth connectivity in cities is contemplated as significant in the field of urban planning. However, the increased number of population in both developed and developing countries has generated growing demands for private transportation. Urban sprawl and inaccessibility of public transportation to cater for certain segments of locality and population’s needs are among the factors that has contributed to the increasing demand of private transportation. This study aims to evaluate the accessibility of public buses in Kuching City, in the context of sustainable transportation. The study adopts a mixed method approach: the quantitative approach involves using Public Transportation Accessibility Level (PTAL) based on responses collected from 140 commuters of public buses in Kuching City, while the qualitative approach uses in-depth interviews with both the commuters and public buses’ providers in Kuching City to identify experiences, issues and challenges in regards to the current situation of public buses in order to provide ways to improve the current system of public buses in Kuching City. By factoring the availability of routes and frequency of public transportation services within a specific time frame into PTAL besides administering thematic analysis on the qualitative data, the results of PTAL showed that Kuching City has poor accessibility level due to long waiting time experienced by the commuters of public buses. The findings of the study thus call for immediate policy action in particular by the Sarawak State Government to invest in upgrading the current public transportation system to make Kuching City an inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable human settlement in Borneo.