Is Kuala Lumpur Walkable?

Although we’ve spent a lot more time in the peaceful countryside over the past three years, we still love cities. We know the potential benefits of proximity and convenience. We love efficient transit and the embedded health gains offered by traveling on foot to a myriad of urban destinations.

So after our Borneo adventure, we decided to return to Kuala Lumpur (KL) after 10 years and spend a week soaking up its multiethnic mix, food, and smattering of sights. It’s changed and grown a lot, and mostly for the better on the transit and waking front.

So this post is about our brief experience getting around only by foot and metro for a week. First. we choose to stay in a centrally located high rise apartment complex in the KLCC (city center) that had pools, gym and was close to two major transit lines. The amenities at KL apartments and hotels are nice, and relatively affordable. And pools and a gym can be an effective way to avoid the heat of the day.

It’s key to note that as KL has proudly developed from a swampy tin mining village over the past 100 years into a city of over 2 million, in a region known as the the Klang valley that has over 7 million people. Its human scaled grid of walkable Kampungs has mostly been replaced and overlain by a network of developments, asphalt and slip ramps and arterials designed to move people around (almost) solely by automobile. This is a very different trajectory than some other Asian cities such as Hong Kong or Tokyo that have had layers of transit systems functioning for over a hundred years and never lost their core walkability. It’s much smaller than Bangkok and has developed much later when the automobile has been king.

This continued mega development has been masterminded by leaders, designers, and developers that see a vision of auto-only travel. But there are changes afoot as the realization that moving EVERYONE in a car is not possible with the sort of real density being built in much of KL, and especially the KLCC. We noted at least a dozen new high rise buildings under construction in the core. And they are big and tall, and often have a mall or retail.

As somewhat overwhelming and dystopian it feels at times, I think its really an amazing city center as the lack of a grid makes a random, somewhat circular pattern of buildings swirling around the hub of the city at KLCC Park and the beautiful Petronas twin towers. And you can walk on most streets and get between sites via transit and foot. But it’s not always easy. Cars are always first priority.

But to be fair about walking, we have to talk about the heat. My god the heat! It’s hot most of the time and only mildly dips in the evenings and early mornings. The lowest temperature EVER recorded in KL is 64F (18C), a temperature our native San Francisco barely exceeds on average day! March starts to get hotter in KL and it topped out at 95 (35C)for much for our stay. It did cool off the last few days and some rain and cloud cover kept it to 32C/89F makes waking more bearable from midday onwards. With full sun, the vast stretches of asphalt and concrete heat up and limit the cooling possible at street level, even into late evening. But anywhere with trees is pleasant and notably cooler.

And other issues wear you down. The ubiquitous forecourts, now even more essential for ride hailing trips dominate the streetscape. You must cross or share the space with moving cars, And slip, frontage, and garage access ways define the pedestrian environment. As a lifelong advocate (and sometimes designer) for better walking environments, KL offers a huge opportunity. Sidewalks come and go, curb heights are massive (perhaps for storm drainage?) and pedestrian crossings few and far between.

But from what we’ve experienced in our brief week, you CAN walk in a lot of KL, especially in the city center (KLCC) and adjacent dense neighborhoods.

Mass rail Transit started late here, but is now starting to change the center of gravity of movement. We especially loved the new Yellow line which opened in 2022, and has excellent design standards for comfort and station access. The older lines (such as red and blue) are have lower capacity and get packed at rush hour; even requiring guards to monitor and control platform crowding from the mezzanine or concourse levels. Clearly, people want to take transit or are choosing it over the congestion and cost of car ownership. But capacity and design have not matched road building to date; but with two more metro lines being built and set to open in the next 10 years, things may get even better.

The City leaders are now recognizing that walking trips are essential in the core and in station areas. But outside the center neighborhood, most areas are still designed as disconnected nodes of business or residential developments with masses of parking.

The inefficiency adds cost to everything and may be an extra reason why KL is such the labor draw. It’s one of the few places in Malaysia where you can live and work without a car. Car ownership is a huge burden on a striving lower and middle class. All of the Borneo cities we spent time in had virtually no public transit and were fairly spread out. With modest wages; car transport and maintenance is a huge part of the monthly budget.

Interesting enough, scooter culture is small in Malaysia. It’s hot, distances are far, and there is a long rainy season. It’s also further along the development scale than its neighbors like Thailand and Indonesia, where scooters are still huge. But an average car car costs 5-10x more than a scooter.

This is a disease all over the developing and developed world. Many cities and suburbs in the United States lack a good walking environment and culture, so I’m not singling out KL or Malaysia for a unique deficiency, just noting that it could be so much better with some real focus on pedestrian access, comfort, and connectivity. Wider sidewalks, more crosswalks, and more trees and canopies. New buildings need proper pedestrian access. Pedestrian signage and more dignity for pedestrians. It won’t be easy as most of the built environment of KL was really (and sometimes comically) built 100% for cars.

But we enjoyed our time in KL and managed to do everything we wanted by walking and metro, except our airport Grab trips (you can take a train from KL Central to the airport!). You need to be patient, plan your walking as early in the morning as possible, and navigate on the shady sides of major streets. KL is not going to crack any top ten walkable cities list soon, but we hope when we return again in 10 years that it has realized even more of the promise we saw on this trip.

After leaving KL, we got to spend part of a day in Singapore as we connected late back to Europe out of Changi Airport. We had originally planned to spend a few days in Singapore, but the Taylor Swift effect was strong and hotel prices crazy surrounding her 6 sold out shows. The only shows in SE Asia.

Singapore is a testament to dense, but livable urbanism. It’s eminently walkable and pedestrian friendly, with very little traffic. It’s achieved this by famous green design and a transit first policy. KL should strive for some of the success of its tiny neighbor.

So it’s goodbye to Asia for now. We’re now back in Europe and have started our late winter bicycle adventure…more on that soon…