Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is an idea to develop compact, walkable, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use communities centred around high quality train systems. This idea aims to reduce the dependability on cars, but the community uses public transport like trains instead.

I think this development style is a good idea for developing a more sustainable city. We can reduce stress on road due to congested traffic while at the same time can help the earth to reduce the greenhouse effect. However, for this idea to be realised, the train system in Malaysia first should be upgraded so that people can actually rely on the train systems. For now, I do not think that Malaysia is ready enough for this kind of development because of the limited areas covered by train services.

From a study by Gomez, Omar and Nallusamy (2019), the respondents believes that TOD serves many benefits, perhaps because the questionnaire is done at KL Sentral where people there actually use public transports. Kuala Lumpur is a well-developed city, so the public transport there is abundant. I want to know whether this kind of development is actually possible in different parts of Malaysia, especially rural areas in Sabah and Sarawak. 

TOD is a good idea in developing a less-stressful living area. However, there are many things to be considered in term of the public’s readiness to not rely on personal transports and cost.