Understanding the usage pattern of local facilities in urban neighbourhood towards creating a livable city

Local facilities in residential neighbourhood play an important role towards the social sustainability of the local residents. These local facilities are basic components within a particular neighbourhood that include recreational facilities, health facilities, banks, post offices, educational facilities and other communal facilities. Their provision has a significant impact on enabling, sustaining and enhancing societal living conditions and improving quality of living. This denotes the importance of the provision of local facilities to the local residents to create a livable city. In Malaysia, through the development plans, zonings for the local services and facilities provide an important impact on the availability of these services within a neighbourhood. These were also supported by the demand and supply of the services and facilities required by the residents. Issues concerning local facilities in urban neighbourhood often revolve around the quality and catchment area, usage pattern and its accessibility. This paper apparently looks into understanding the usage pattern of the local facilities in several urban neighborhoods within the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and Federal Territory of Putrajaya. Preliminary findings of the study expose local issues and problems related to the access and its usage of facilities within the residential neighborhoods which corresponds to the issues highlighted in the National Urban Policy (NUP) (Federal Department of Town and Country Planning Peninsular Malaysia, 2006). Following this, through a face-to-face household questionnaire survey, the researcher gathers information on the usage pattern in terms of frequency of use, mode of transportation used, perceptions towards quality and satisfaction of the local facilities. The paper concludes with the discussion of the factors that impacts the usage pattern