Greater Kuala Lumpur’s Public Transportation and its Viability: A Qualitative Study

• Commuters perceive public transport as functional enough to use but fragile enough to abandon. Their perceptions are shaped by three clusters of experiences: the commuting journey, the reliability of operating services, and social or environmental conditions.
• In their commuting journey experience, respondents prioritize comfort and safety throughout the trip, value the ability to manage their own time, and find mental relief in not having to drive.
• The reliability of operating services strongly influences mode choice. Commuters compare services by their reliability, accessibility (including first- and last-mile considerations), and how interchanges or station layouts affect trip smoothness.
• Social and environmental conditions shape comfort levels along the journey. Weather conditions amplify discomfort, while encounters in public transport spaces also influence how commuters evaluate the overall experience.
• People are keen to use public transport, but there are key critical factors (e.g. reliability, comfort and safety, travel time, transfers and accessibility) that we have identified as friction points. These have the potential to encourage or to impede them from continuing to use public transport.

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