Prioritising Sociability Attributes of Main Shopping Streets Towards an Inclusive Urban Design

In the context of asian cities, streets define the diversity and vibrancy of public spaces despite facing a constant threat of losing the spaces to motorized vehicles and large-scale development. The social life of streets is eroded as a result of new developments that are exclusive and privately regulated. This paper discusses the attributes that influence the sociability of shopping streets based on the street users' assessment. A questionnaire survey was conducted involving 332 respondents in four main shopping streets in the Kuala lumpur city centre, Malaysia. Identification of the sociability attributes using analytic network Process (anP) was applied to determine the sociability factors based on the order of priority. The study found that users tended to participate in social activities while visiting the shopping streets. However, their social behaviour indicated that the actual engagement in optional and informal activities was not regular. Perceived safety and spatial accessibility mainly influenced the users' level of engagement with the streets' activities. To retain streets as inclusive social spaces, urban designers could prioritise mixed-land uses, positive pedestrian experience and good accessibility in boosting sociability of urban places.