Streets Made Great - Johor Bahru's Street Transformations

Johor Bahru, like many other cities, faced a decline of the public realm with the development of suburban areas.
By making the most out of its historic city centre's robustness, its streets are livelier than ever!
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Thanks for watching and have a good morning!

[@limaru2]

This video goes to prove that it's not just "European" countries that have good streets, even our neighbours like Malaysia have too! Singapore has always been touted as the better street planner as compared to Malaysia, but I think the change-resistant culture in Singapore is hurting a lot in the aspect of street planning. Once again, thanks for posting a video on JB.

[@krollpeter]

This is how things should be done! It looks lively, and interesting, and therefore attracts people. Now attach affordable parking spaces outside these areas, and this will sure be a place for people to live and breeze. And of course public transport. No high curbs, a variety of small shops and eating places, and space to sit and hang around. Not everything is money - you make people feel well and welcome, they will come. Upper Bukit Timah Road around Beauty World would be a prime area for this, but they build more malls and condos. That with all the shopping malls was a big mistake. It supports those huge multinational companies and chain businesses, not local business. A few malls, ok, but not so many of them that are essentially the same everywhere.

[@AKEnoch-rl3eu]

As a Malaysian (though not a resident of Johor Bahru) thanks for creating this video. It serves a lot of educational benefits to everyone on how street design impact lives and the environment. I believe that other Malaysian cities would follow this. Not just their city centres, this is a model for sustainable and healthy living for Malaysians to have. Try Penang next time, I heard they got some streets you want to review.

[@zo3478]

Thank you for the video. I have been studying in Johor Bahru for a while now and one thing that frustrates me is the car centric planning. As a student without a car I'm handicapped and stuck in my college for weeks at a time with the only way in and out of where I stay is the highway. Bandar Johor Bahru is probably the only place where I feel like I'm able to walk around freely here. Unfortunately, this is only a small area of the ridiculous urban sprawl with anywhere outside of Bandar Johor Bahru almost impossible to get to on foot. I hope this serves as a good example for future development.

[@Alltoc]

The raised zebra crossing is probably the most underrated piece of infrastructure

[@tehsiewdai]

indeed!

[@penguinpingu3807]

I am a Malaysian seeing a Malaysian city making changes to make cities more pedestrian friendly makes me happy. The city I live in currently, Kota Kinabalu is very car centric. Expect for a few areas, like Gaya street. Sometimes, you cannot differentiate it with American city planning. Especially with suburbs but at least they aren't single family houses. But I can tell they are trying to make it people friendly with bike lanes but it's unprotected and it's just a painted bicycle gutter. So, unsurprising you won't see people using them. And bus services are close to non. It's maybe horrible but hopefully it's a seed that can be bloomed into a beautiful flower.

[@xiiaohao3871]

Ah it's nice to see Malaysians slowly becoming orange-pilled

[@yc5263]

I visited KK last year, I was really surprised at how walkable the city center was actually, streets were compact and crossable with lots of traffic calming. Of course suburbs are car centric but that's everywhere in Malaysia. Other than that I really enjoyed my trip in Sabah, people were friendly, patient ... :)

[@penguinpingu3807]

@@yc5263 Yes, that's why I put a few areas. City center is definitely walkable like all city centers in the country. Same problem with other Malaysian cities is that, basically anywhere outside the city proper or greater area is unwalkable unless you live near in these commercial areas which some are connected to the suburbs but sometimes they are quite far from their house which makes some take the car instead. These commercial areas are 100% walkable but if you want to walk to other commercial areas from one. But I am glad you enjoy your stay and hospitality in Sabah. And if you come back to KK for a visit, if you want to explore the greater area of KK besides the city center or if you are on your way to Mt Kinabalu or our other natural attractions or cities/towns like Sandakan. Go to these commercial areas for a meal outside the city center. But be warned some can vary in quality.

[@umbrodiscord8265]

As a Malaysian (specifically from Johor Bahru), this makes me proud of how well it have improved since then. Thank you for making the street design video, it makes me fascinate about how my city's central business district walkways have improven. I went to the city center once per 2 weeks, the raised zebra crossing really make things easier for tourists and pedestrians like you and I. Also, the brick design streets really make a diffrence of how urban planning can work. The River reformation project was beautiful I've noticed it in 2019. Huge credits to the city council

[@SilverfoxJB]

I've lived in Johor for 14 years. It has changed massively for the better, but it can still go a lot further. It really is a City that would benefit from a Monorail to go between the main areas. All the way from the Centre to Mount Austin, Iskandar Puteri, Sutera etc. Anyway, an interesting video. Thank you.

[@AMacProOwner]

Thanks for demonstrating the parts that make up a robust place! I had no idea Permeability, Variety, Legibility where such crucial elements who's all needed. Also how car centric planning misses out on certain elements.

[@yukko_parra]

It gives me some happiness as a Malaysian, that change can be made. If it can happen to one shoplot area, what about the numerous shoplot districts throughout the country.

[@kokohanahana]

as an Indonesian living in a city (malang) with the worst traffic and barely any public transportation or walkability, watching your videos is very interesting and kinda make me jealous of our neighbors lol. love your videos!

[@afl6786]

Saya tetangga bang,diblitar juga sama keadaannya

[@infj5196]

Pemerintah Indonesia adalah pemerintah yang gagal

[@pie_rre_teo]

great video! i enjoy going to the cafe on the street you mentioned. it is indeed a nice place

[@sarah.713]

Great video! I’m gonna read further on how JB implement this plan to make the city more pedestrian friendly, i hope ss15 in subang jaya or even the pasar seni/petaling street in KL can improve further on this!

[@zhkwan5875]

love your channel so much. as a singaporean interested in urban planning, Im so happy to discover someone sharing the same passion as I do. You really brought "not just bikes" (the youtube channel) into a local context, and I appreciate the amount of research gone into ur videos.

[@xhyvieremorales4922]

Thank you for these videos! You deserve more subscribers and viewers for the quality you present. Hoping more countries explore and implement more people-centered infrastructures in the future! :)

[@travelrefocused]

I really enjoyed this video. Very informative. I hope to visit JB and Singapore soon.

[@timzee]

As a Geographer and a teacher as well, I thoroughly connected with your content! Going to use it in my classroom teaching. YOu're such an inspiration!

[@lynx141]

A really good video with sound expertise. Wish you can do this for other cities and towns in Malaysia.

[@jessetan3112]

Thanks for sharing, JB city centre really improved. I hope they can have more trees like Singapore, as currently it does not have alot of shades and very hot during daytime😂

[@jasonheng5077]

Great content of JB Town.. thanks for the research.

[@christao408]

Nicely done.

[@patricklee2799]

Well done JB. Now to keep maintaining & improving the landscape from time to time. Soon it may be on par with Singapore!

[@miltonmiles6324]

Thank you for making this video. It gives me hope that city councils around Malaysia are beginning to pick up the ideas of New Urbanism and Strong Towns.

[@AustinTan]

Hoping to have these design influence more city in Malaysia to do the same. I wish to live in a place where car isn't a necessity. All we get is benefits. Less polluted,ess debt, safer street for everyone.

[@kexsh]

great video essay

[@fitrisuhaimi2124]

Weyh aku org JB tapi dah lama tak pergi bandar. Tak tahu pulak byk dah berubah. Cool video bro.

[@willa8720]

hoping we can see more SEA cities to do the same thing

[@yjjcoolcool]

It's baffling how Johor Bahru can do better street transformations than Singapore, despite it being known as super car-centric. Singapore planners can definitely do better. On a side note, could you add chapters to your videos? It would be nice to be able to see all the points as a whole and jump to each point.

[@syafsmith5085]

Congratulations, you’ve shown a few lanes overlooking the bay area converted to pedestrian corners while conveniently overlooking that Singapore also has the same albeit in cultural hotspots like Kampong Glam, Chinatown and in Little India and a few in Somerset. Not withstanding that you can cycle in those pedestrian lanes and into pathways wider and connect you to a bike lanes by a greater chance. You know, something that doesn’t exist in JB.

[@yjjcoolcool]

​@@syafsmith5085 You're not wrong tbh, yes those places you mentioned are arguably more walkable and cyclable than JB, but I'm talking about more recent street transformations, especially those in town areas. Watch tehsiewdai's previous video on Redesigning Streets for Seniors: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZDcooGNgbKMmtk Several points mentioned in this video that I observed and compared to the previous video: - 3:58 In JB, fences are placed along the sides of the street, but have gaps in between such that pedestrians can easily go between each side of the street. Compare that to SG where you have long stretches of bush barricades that force you to walk to the nearest designated crossing in order to cross to the other side. - 4:11 In JB, the sidewalks aren't raised too high up above shared spaces. Compare that to SG where a lot of the time, sidewalks are raised considerably high from the road, which increases the chances of people tripping and falling. - 6:33 In JB, raised zebra crossings are installed, forcing drivers to slow down and providing a "continuous sidewalk" for pedestrians. I don't think SG has any of those. Actually, coming back to your point on cycling, looking at Jalan Tan Hiok Nee (4:46) & Jalan Meldrum (3:26), despite there being no cycle lanes, it still feels very safe to cycle down the street, because it's a well designed shared space that makes it clear to drivers that they need to slow down and look out for pedestrians and cyclists. Compare that to places like Geylang in SG, where the narrow sidewalks and roadside parking make it dangerous for people to cycle there.

[@MsGladys57]

I simply love this area!❤

[@CyC61]

Best Road in Singapore, JB and some say Batam!

[@whazzat8015]

Great series Coastal Texas has similar climate and congestion Subbed

[@natep6729]

I think bollards would be better, and cheaper to prevent cars from parking on the sidewalks as fences also prevent people from crossing.

[@vincentkohlumcfan22]

Insightful, might work for KL!

[@mndy2524]

please make this type of video at kuala lumpur🙏kl city center more pedestrian friendly and lots of public transportation

[@drewh3224]

I have been looking for such content from Malaysia for a while. We need these pedestrian, urban friendly streets and human scale streetscapes in Kuala Lumpur, with separated bike lanes. Current automobile centric isn't sustainable!

[@onijatitulang1943]

Wow mantap Johor bahru Johor Malaysia good morning thank you

[@derrickg91]

I feel that Georgetown in Penang have good pedestrian walkways, that ThinkCity organisation is originally established to help old shoplots conservation effort in Penang.

[@decemberTakoTako]

Living in East Malaysia, in a city plagued by cars, i really wish we have more pedestrian friendly streets

[@WhoEvenIsYou]

The trees on the streets shown in the video kinda looks like the average SG road, just that there are way less cars

[@jinngeechia9715]

Would love to see this implemented for Jln Mambong and Jln Luput. Also Serangoon Gardens and Duxton.

[@lzh4950]

Jln Mambong is already pedestrianized on evenings

[@thecfclad]

thank you for the video and huge credit to MBJB for reforming Segget river and Jalan Dhoby to make it more pedestrian friendly and walkable. just hope that it can be standardised and applied to all areas around Johor Bahru that still needs attention for its poor walkability conditions.

[@yuzhuhiko]

Selangor and KL really need to learn from this. Horrendous pedestrian design is being done to our city and nobody is noticing how terrible it has become

[@issactian3143]

Johor Bahru center city urban town streets are a whole lot quieter ever since the new CIQ complex has been open and the people traffic has been diverted some one km north to opposite city square. The whole of old town Johor Bahru south of city square have however pick up slightly with some young Singaporean doing their breakfast and bread shopping at jalan Tan hock Nee. There are talk of allowing pedestrian to use the old CIQ complex but that all talk. Singapore like to do a one day trip to Johor Bahru, to do some shopping, eating, massaging, car washing but it the very old town side of jb that is special unique and interesting which make it very special, so jb need to do a system restore in this area. First, a section of the area that is being developed along jalan Tan hock Nee from jalan segget OCBC to jalan trus need to have a facade of the old building. This facade can be rebuilt from old photo and old plan from the land dept. This facade should be some 20ft deep before and new design can be incorporated behind this design. I also find that some shops not only in the old town in jb that they like to build their 5 foot way much higher as much as 18inche higher. Now this is very annoying for pedestrian and a sore and unpleasant sight. The last thing I want mention here is the pasar malam at the jalan segget which has left to be very dirty with cooking oil from the seller. The seller that is cooking should be assign a certain area so as not to dirty the road side with dirty oil.

[@honestyfirst2165]

As long as JB will keep on benchmarking against SG, it will experience gradual improvement

[@vtanson2724]

Thanks to ThinkCity a group of young urban enthusiasts who has helped transform many old town centers in Malaysia. Come to KL old town - you will be pleasantly surprised!

[@buitenzorg5970]

*cries in Skudai I just want to go shopping without ordering Grab

[@umbrodiscord8265]

Buses exists now

[@Glajdar]

Its all about strict enforcement and citizens having a sense of civility and responsibility.

[@ylamoon]

Thailand has increasingly prioritized automobiles, becoming a predominantly car-centric nation. As the country develops further, its walkability factor diminishes, making it less pedestrian-friendly. It's hardly surprising that it ranks among the top ten nations with the highest rates of road fatalities. The pressing need for more walkable cities in Thailand is evident. The omnipresence of cars and the resulting pollution is becoming intolerable. It's time for a change.

[@parameswarar2]

The layout of the city is a messed,otherwise,JB would be a very beautiful city with a great seaview.

[@rahmahharon7770]

Hello johorean i'm new here

[@maxjoynson5614]

Why KL cannot have things like this bruh

[@eccentworld3611]

r u in np

[@delsol1967]

Why are JB streets so dirty compared to KL?

[@Mkungaa]

Wow, that is better street design than latest street design in Japan. There is literally not a single raised pedestrian crossing in whole country of Japan.

[@ericling]

new government doing something...nice to see

[@catlerbatty]

Such nice streets yet people manage to bring in suv's in those single lanes. I wonder what will it take for the government to ban motors in pedestrian zones.

[@jaslueasi554]

I don’t think I am a fan of the fences as it prevents people from crossing the road.

[@zaidanaldzakir2008]

@rekaputri.officialberbagi @aqissandfamily @hokiproduction tv rekaputrisematakarenamu #rekanationqna