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AT the Citizens’ Dialogue on Gaya Street in connection with the Kota Kinabalu Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning, Daily Express met Azarel Chamorro – a SMMR International Technical Advisor.

The following is an interview with Azarel on his perspective of the ongoing Kota Kinabalu Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning.

Daily Express: What is the Kota Kinabalu Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning and what is your role in it?

Azarel Chamorro: We the Sustainable Mobility in Metropolitan Regions in Asean (MMMR) is an initiative, a project commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Asean Secretariat based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 

We collaborate with middle-sized cities in different countries in Southeast Asia like Laos, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia in order to support sustainable mobility goals.

Sustainable mobility is a set of measures aimed at making the movement and transport of people and goods efficient and rational from the economic, social and environmental point of view. So we work with different cities like Kota Kinabalu. 

What we do with cities is we try to support them – how they can develop sustainable mobility plans, transport systems and in the case of Kota Kinabalu we came here, we engaged this city, we wanted to know more about how we can help, we organised a workshop (June 27-28) with different stakeholders with the local people, shop owners, transport and all that to know what are the issues, how we can fix them and two or few weeks ago there were workshops where they released a sustainable goal report, the strategy for 2030 and we think this strategy contains important pillars which is transportation mobility. 

So the city is going to pursue those goals and we came here with the idea of how we can support. 

In talks with DBKK we wanted to explore specifically the old town – Gaya Street and all these areas, how can we create a more liveable neighbourhood and how we can create a more city-wide community transportation accessibility for everybody - the elderly include.

So we came with ideas, we did  different presentations, looked at different scenarios and more or less, people recommend convenience, the need for more pleasant local experience, the need for more transport options and choices.

And out of those options today (July 14), we invited the local people to what we call the Citizens’ Dialogue which is an activity where we wanted to know the feedbacks from everybody into those ideas.

For that feedback, we had different activities, we marked where they come from, there’s little or no data so far, what are the challenges we ae going to fix. We also have a visioning scenarios with the boxes, with different pictures on how do people like their streets, how can we improve their experience, how can people make Gaya Street better. 

DE: Why picked Gaya Street for the Citizens’ dialogue? 

Azarel: Because Gaya Street is basically the commercial centre of Kota Kinabalu, the town centre of Kota Kinabalu but we are not limited to Gaya Street, the idea is we want to create a different neighbourhood, we want to assess how we can create different hubs and how we can consolidate sustainable areas and the final question is how we can connect all the different neighbourhoods much better so that people have choices.

SMMR International Technical Advisor Azarel Chamorro

This is what we have done so far, the next step is the city of KK is based on the existing strategies and plans, we are coming to draft a set of strategies and action plan, to implement those. So we will be back in a few months or less than that, because I see DBKK staff are quite efficient, there’s a lot of work which has been done, to connect this with the rest of Asean neighbours to find a way which can be implemented. 

DE: Are you based in Kota Kinabalu?

Azarel: No, I am actually based in Tokyo, I am actually a resident of Japan, for a very long time but SMMR is based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I also do work in Phnom Penh but mostly in Tokyo so I go back to Tokyo from here.

I am trained more in transportation mobility and integration, more into economic revenue generation. So one of the things we are going to see is how to ensure that the local shops for example, monetise these strategies so that they can increase their economic opportunities here for everybody.

DE: What are the challenges in mobility you can see here in KK?

Azarel: One thing is that Kota Kinabalu has very similar challenges to many of the cities in Southeast Asia. In a way there is very little pedestrian infrastructure, the walkables, the weather doesn’t help because it is very hot and raining but that is something you can fix.

Also, one thing KK really has an issue is car ownership is quite high and because of that there is not really a functioning option here which means that those who have a car they will use the car but when I was walking and surveying many people, I realised that there are so many people who cannot drive - elderly, those people with little economic opportunities as well.

So there is much people that cannot be served and those people are left outside because they cannot move. For example, the other day I tried to walk from Foh Sang to Gaya Street, and there was a point, a flyover which I couldn’t pass because it’s only for cars.  So I was wondering if someone (non-car owner) from Foh Sang wants to come to Gaya Street to do some paper work, the only option is Grab, or some bus but the buses are not clear.

So the lack of options is very critical in Kota Kinabalu but there is a lot of opportunities here. I can see the city recently started working on the water front, the Atkinson Clock Tower, Gaya Street and those three developments, they are each by their own, they are not connected to each other.

So there is a huge opportunity from the tourist perspective, from the local perspective to connect those, create economic opportunities and also more sustainable choices. Those are in the plan so that’s something on the pipeline, and it’s also one of the activities we got here.  

Those are basically the challenges we can find across Malaysia. There are different administrative levels, different competences. Of course we need to bring them together, we need to put them together to see what can be done but  so far we see goodwill, to work together  to achieve this.

DE: So you think the problem can be solved?

Azarel: We hope so, I see many greenlights here. We always say for the Action Plan, we need to do something small (first), that’s why we were in Gaya street, because of consolidated development, it’s a small place with a lot of value on the outputs.

From this will be some sort of guidelines for the city, what they are doing here maybe can be applied somewhere else, maybe they can see what good example down here they can apply. 

DE: Is traffic jam in KK a problem, the way you see it?

Azarel: The question is always like, is traffic jam a problem? For a car user, it’s a problem, if you are jammed, you are late. However, from a pedestrian perspective jams are good. Traffic jam can be a challenge for cars but it’s an opportunity because if you are travelling by car, it’s not a good choice. But if you have other choices, more sustainable choices, people will choose them.

For example, I notice in KK people who came by car from Suria Sabah to Gaya Street or from Imago to Gaya Street, you can walk. It’s just that if you have parking here (Gaya Street), it’s more comfortable.

So can we make it comfortable also for those who cannot drive, those who want to walk? So I think it’s important to be inclusive and the strategies of the city is also working towards that.

I think traffic jams we should not look at them as a problem to be fixed, all over the world, whether you are in Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Washington, no one has fixed yet traffic jams, no one! There are people who say – one more lane will fix it so we make broader roads but it never works because there is no capacity, there is not enough parking.

I saw in Foh Sang, Luyang, they are now finishing that parking lot, no choice, because to go there, you need to go by car. Imagine that surface is dedicated for shops, how much money you generate but it’s a parking lot.

Even crossing the street from Damai to Foh Sang is actually not pleasant. But that’s the question, can we offer choices?