Pengangkutan bermotor kini telah membawa kemudahan yang besar kepada manusia. Ia memberi kita keupayaan perjalanan ke tempat yang jauh dengan lebih selesa, dan hal ini telah mengakibatkan kita banyak bergantung kepadanya. Pergantungan yang berlebihan kepada kereta telah mengakibatkan dominasi kenderaan di atas jalan, dan situasi ini telah membawa pelbagai masalah seperti kesesakan lalu lintas, keselamatan jalan dan masalah alam sekitar. Pengenalan konsep bandar mesra jalan kaki akan mengubah mod pengangkutan kita dan ia dapat mengurangkan bilangan kereta di atas jalan. Untuk mengalakkan konsep tersebut, zon bebas kereta boleh direka cipta dan dilaksanakan di dalam bandar. Kajian ini tertumpu kepada mengkaji potensi untuk melaksanakan zon bebas kereta di bandar Georgetown, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. Prinsip-prinsip mesra jalan kaki telah dikenal pasti dan diguna pakai sebagai kriteria dalam proses pemodelan zon bebas kereta secara ruangan. Kriteria tersebut digunakan untuk menghasilkan siri peta ruangan yang akan digunakan dalam proses pertindihan ruangan untuk menghasilkan peta kesesuaian yang menunjukkan kawasan pilihan untuk zon bebas kereta. Sebanyak tiga (3) kawasan terpilih untuk menjadi zon bebas kereta. Perbandingan ruangan telah dibuat antara zon bebas kereta dengan model ‘Superblock’, iaitu kajian kes dari projek ‘Superblock Barcelona’ yang mempunyai objektif dan tujuan yang sama. Hasil perbandingan menunjukkan model zon bebas kereta ini mempunyai darjah persamaan hampir sama dan menjamin fungsi kerja. Seterusnya, peratusan peningkatan jalan untuk pejalan kaki di Georgetown juga dikira. Di samping itu, analisis rangkaian juga dilaksanakan untuk mengkaji kesan zon bebas kereta kepada perubahan laluan, jarak dan masa perjalanan. Hasil analisis telah menunjukkan bahawa setiap perjalanan mempunyai laluan yang lebih panjang atas perubahan laluan untuk melepasi zon bebas kereta tersebut. Walaubagaimanapun, masa perjalanan kadang kala dikurangkan atas perubahan laluan ke jalan yang membenarkan had laju yang lebih tinggi. Keseluruhannya, peratusan tambahan jarak perjalanan duduk antara 12.88% ke 174.92%, manakala peratusan tambahan masa perjalanan duduk antara 0.29% ke 119.40%.
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Motorised vehicles nowadays have added enormous convenience to human beings. They allow us to journey far distances in comfort which has caused us to rely heavily on them in traveling. Our excessive dependence on cars has caused the domination of vehicles on roads, and this has brought about various issues to the cities which encompass congestion, street safety, and environmental problems. The introduction of the walkable city will change the travelling mode of people which sequentially help to reduce the number of cars on the roads. To support a walkable city, car-free zones may be designed and established throughout the city. This research studies the feasibility of implementing car-free zones in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia. The principle of walkability is identified and presented as criteria in the spatial modelling of car-free zones. These criteria are generated as series of spatial maps that are consequently used in the spatial overlay process to produce suitability map that shows preferable areas to be designed car-free. The result of the study has established three (3) selected preferable areas as car-free zones. The spatial comparison was made between the proposed car-free zones and the superblock model, i.e. a case study from Barcelona’s Superblock project that have similar objectives and aims of study. It is found that the car-free zones model has some degree of similarities that ensures its work functionally. In addition, the percentage of increase in pedestrianised streets in Georgetown is also determined. Then, the network analysis is performed to determine the effect of car-free zones on the travelling route, distance and time. From the results, it is found that every localised traffic has a longer travelling distance due to the change of route to bypass the car-free zones. Yet, the travelling time sometimes is reduced due to the roads that the traffic has been diverged to allows a higher travelling speed. Overall, the increase in travelling distance ranges from 12.88% to 174.92%, while in travelling time ranges from 0.29% to 119.40%.
Feasibility study on walkable city through implementation of car-free zones in georgetown, penang using spatial analysis / Gui Win Way