From Wan Agyl Wan Hassan
Malaysians debate transport the same way we debate football: loudly, endlessly and with great confidence. Every few months, we argue about MRT lines, new highways, free bus programmes, downtown congestion, express buses and e-hailing regulations.
We have built multi-billion-ringgit rail lines, launched new transit corridors and widened roads until cities have run out of space. And yet somehow the one mode of transport every Malaysian uses — walking — always remains invisible in our national policy imagination.
Walking is treated as a beautification project. A cosmetic upgrade. The responsibility of local councils. Something for tourists in Bukit Bintang, or families in KLCC Park. But not a national economic strategy. Not a key pillar of mobility. Not something worthy of federal funding.
A landmark study from France’s Agency for Ecological Transition (Ademe) last year forces us to confront this bias. The study found that walking accounts for 24% of all daily trips, but that number jumps to nearly 40% once we count the short walks people take to reach bus stops, train stations, parking lots, workplaces, schools and shops.
These “invisible” trips are consistently undercounted in national travel surveys. And if France, having one of the most mature mobility data cultures in the world, undercounts walking so significantly, Malaysia almost certainly does worse.
Our travel surveys do not fully capture short trips, intermodal walking, walking inside buildings or walking as part of “first and last mile” access. When the data is incomplete, policies will also be inadequate.
The French study quantified the socio-economic value of walking at over €300 billion (about RM1.5 trillion) annually. That includes reduced healthcare costs, higher productivity, lower absenteeism, stronger local retail, reduced road maintenance burden, fewer accidents and major household savings.
We do not know what the Malaysian number is, but the absence of national measurement is itself a national policy failure.
Look around the Klang Valley, and the problem becomes obvious. Stations like Glenmarie and Taman Bahagia sit behind multilane roads few people can cross safely. The Kajang MRT line is lined with stations surrounded by slip roads, fences and blind corners. In Subang Jaya, most LRT stations are technically “near” shops and housing, but practically impossible to walk to without feeling unsafe.
In Shah Alam, sidewalks stop abruptly or tilt into drains. In many parts of Kuala Lumpur, you can walk for 150m on a decent footpath only for it to vanish into a carpark exit or a grass verge.
This is why ridership is suppressed. We keep blaming “car culture” or habits, but the truth is much simpler: people walk when walking feels safe, shaded, convenient and respected. When it does not, they don’t. And no matter how modern your system is, people can’t teleport to stations.
Malaysia’s climate makes this even more urgent. We are a country of heat, humidity and sudden rain, and yet our pedestrian environments rarely provide shade, shelter, ventilation or continuity. Walkways that should connect to transit instead expose people to sun, rain, fast cars and discomfort. In a tropical nation, walkability cannot mean “sidewalks”; it must mean “protected, shaded, continuous pedestrian networks”.
The irony is that we keep investing billions into public transport but underinvest in the very thing that determines whether or not people use it. Malaysia spent over RM30 billion on the Kajang MRT line, but not even 1% of that amount went to improving walking access within a 500m radius of stations.
The French study shows that walking is the backbone of public transport: the average transit user there walks 255 to 455 metres, spending five to nine minutes on foot before and after each trip. Malaysia is no different with our planning guideline of 400 metres. If walking is unsafe or unpleasant, the whole system collapses.
Walking also boosts local business. Bukit Bintang is one of the places in Malaysia with the highest foot traffic, making it one of the most economically vibrant. Jonker Street in Melaka thrives because people walk, not because parking is abundant.
In contrast, many car-centric commercial strips struggle because people simply drive past them. The French study found walkable commercial streets outperform car-dependent ones. This pattern repeats globally and is visible here at home too.
Transport poverty adds another dimension. Many B40 and M40 families spend a disproportionate share of income on transport: repayments, petrol, tolls, maintenance.
Walking is the cheapest mode of transport in existence, but decades of car-oriented planning have made it impractical or dangerous for many families, forcing them into motorbike or car dependency. A more walkable Malaysia is a more affordable Malaysia.
To be clear, Malaysia is not France. Our climate, land use and cultural patterns differ. The economic numbers from the Ademe study cannot be transplanted directly. But the economic logic is universally applicable: walking has measurable, significant socio-economic value. Malaysia has never attempted to quantify it. That gap is not a limitation; it is an opportunity.
This is the moment to shift from beautification to strategy. We need to launch our first national walking mobility survey to measure walking in all its forms: standalone, intermodal, leisure, indoor and within built-up areas. We need a Malaysia-specific socioeconomic model of walking built on local wages, healthcare costs, retail behaviour, infrastructure spending, and climate realities. We need federal walking standards like shading, continuity, lighting, safety and accessibility to guide all local councils.
Most importantly, Malaysia needs a national walking strategy in the run-up to 2030, anchored in three priorities: redesigning walking routes around every rail and BRT station within 800m; converting selected city-centre roads into pedestrian-priority corridors; and reallocating a fixed percentage of road-building budgets to pedestrian infrastructure every year.
Walking is not the enemy of cars, buses, trains or e-hailing. It is the enabler of all of them. Fix walking, and everything else becomes cheaper and more efficient. Ignore walking, and no amount of rail spending will ever be enough.
The future of Malaysian mobility will not be determined by how many highways or MRT lines we build. It will be decided by how easily people can walk to the things that matter. A country that prioritises walkability is a country that prioritises productivity, health, dignity and opportunity.
Malaysia will never unlock the full value of its transport system until it fixes the most fundamental mode of transport we already have: our own two feet.
Wan Agyl Wan Hassan is the founder and CEO of MY Mobility Vision, a transport think tank.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.