The socio-economic influence on vehicle ownership in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Reducing private car dependency is one of the main challenges in the development of a sustainable transportation system. To help enhancing policy effectiveness it is necessary to understand the factors that actually influence private car ownership. This paper details the socio-economic factors of private car ownership based on the findings of a field survey of 988 respondents in the Kota Kinabalu city. Data were analyzed using the Chi square test and logistic regression. The statistical analyses revealed that respondents who were adults, having stable , full time employment which fetched them a monthly income of RM2000 and above, and married to a working spouse would favour private car ownership. By contrast, youths (such as students), unemployed or semi-employed respondents ( such as housewive), unmarried people and those earning below RM800 monthly would favour public tranports. Nevertheless, this latter group would turn to favour prive car ownership if and when their socio-economic conditiond improved. These details would facilitate Kota Kinabalu authorities in fine-tuning their planning policies with respect to vehicle ownership in the city’s overall transportation system.