Riviera City, Brickfields (parking development)

Riveria City, Brickfields

There's a new development opening soon in Brickfields. DBKL and the developer have somehow conspired together to burden the city with another car-centric project, enabling excessive use of cars in a downtown location.

Labelled a 'Transit Orientated Development', the location is 100m away from the monorail and 300m away from Malaysia's biggest transport hub, KL Sentral. 

First eleven levels dedicated to cars.

Car-brained policies

Yet, car-brained policies have produced ELEVEN levels of parking beneath the residential tower and adjacent to it.

In what almost seems like a parody, the monorail line goes THROUGH the parking block.  Public transport is obviously getting in the way of all the important parking space so they need to build around it. 

All-important parking space wrapping around the monorail.  Is this the best use of space for our capital city?

DBKL, when will you realise that your policies are enabling car traffic, even at so-called Transit Orientated Developments?   You have a policy to 'solve traffic' by 2030 but at the same time you are pushing for insane amounts of parking space to be dumped right in the city.

Missed opportunity

On top of this, the development is right next to what could be a cycle superhighway, the River of Life (South West Dedicated Bicycle Highway), which feeds into the heart of KL and also to Midvalley and on to PJ.  With its traffic-free location alongside the river, this could provide an ideal route for commuters, with a bit of joined-up thinking. 

Why not put a bicycle parking garage at the foot of the building, directly accessing the River of Life?  Make it covered, secure, and free for residents.

Even better, sort out the missing link in front of the new development and the monorail depot.  With a bit of creativity, a seamless bike route could be implemented to make bike journeys quicker, safer and smoother.

Possible solution for missing-link River of Life pathway to help prioritize walking and cycling over car traffic.

Instead, the bicycle route is blocked by the development, a new road bridge, and the monorail depot.

The route continuing past the development, and the new bridge across the river, designed for cars (right side).

End of the line.  RoL route gated off at the monorail depot.

Local inspiration

People say look to Singapore to learn about people-centric developments for the city, and yes there are some good examples there, but there are other examples much closer to home. A short distance away in Kampung Attap is Sam Mansion.  

Sam Mansion.  No elevated parking.

This has 11 levels of homes with NO PARKING BLOCKS, just a small parking yard next to the building (and it's not even full!).  

Small parking area.  The rest of the space is for people.

DBKL, there needs to be a serious re-think of these insane parking minimums that end up enabling traffic in downtown areas, make Malaysians unhealthy (with the highest obesity rate in S E Asia) and drive up the cost of housing.  There are great examples from the past and from around the world that urban planners, policy makers and other stakeholders can look to for inspiration.