In between luxury of housing and affordability of transportation: Exploring automobile dependency of housing estate residents and kampung dwellers in suburban Bandung, Indonesia

Housing and transportation has become a pair of factors when it comes to decision of buying a house for the middle-income. This particular group of society is unique as they are aspired to luxury yet with limited affordability, particularly in the developing countries such as Indonesia. In many cases, housing estates are built in the form similar to gated community. Built in the suburban when usually the new housing estates are located quite in far distance to facilities, the residents are forced to own private vehicle(s) to conduct their daily activities. This situation shows the tendency of automobile dependence (Newman & Kenworthy, 1996; 1999). It has also been reflected in the vehicle ownership statistics figures and the notorious traffic congestion of Indonesian cities. The middle-income housing and their gated community has not only impacted their own travel pattern but also the residents living in kampung adjacent to their housing estate. Kampung dwellers have also reflected the middle-income characteristics with their lifestyle and automobile dependence. It has become eminent in suburban Bandung where pockets of kampung are found to be hidden amidst the housing estates whilst cars are parked on the roadsides. This is problematic in terms of affordability where they cannot really afford to own a car or motorbike as well as to rent a parking space since they usually live in small houses at kampung. To understand the above phenomenon, this paper tries to explore the extent of automobile dependency of the residents living at housing estate and its adjacent kampung at three locations in suburban Bandung. Data collected from observation, questionnaires and group interviews are descriptively analysed. Results have shown that most residents travel in far distance to reach their job location but do not travel in far distance to conduct their shopping, learning, and sporting activities tough some of them own a motorbike. The latter is due to the presence of mobile green grocers, warung, traditional markets, good quality schools, sport facilities and open spaces within walking distance to their houses. However, these facilities are visited mostly because there are access points through the housing estates made available for public use. Kampung alleys become connected to the streets within the housing estates. When these access points are restricted or non-existed, the travel pattern would differ as has been uttered by the kampung dwellers. In one of the cases, the following disconnections between the kampung alleys and streets of housing estates have made the kampung dwellers altered either the location or the transportation mode of their activities. There are lessons to be learned from these travel patterns. Housing estate development shall always have access to the kampung that have existed and vice versa. Such spatial connections will contribute to a change of travel behaviour from automobile dependence to active travel. However, it should be kept in mind that these results may not be generally applicable to other places with different socio-economic and spatial characters. Further work in the field may be benefited from more cases and larger population sample.