Kuala Lumpur has spent a lot of money building air-conditioned bridges between malls. Meanwhile, the city's oldest covered walkway just went on the market for RM30 a month.
In August, DBKL introduced a flat RM30 monthly fee for traders to place tables and chairs on the five-foot way — the kaki lima, the sheltered corridor running in front of every old shophouse row. The permit itself is not new. The flat, cheap fee is.
Disability groups, residents' associations and heritage advocates pushed back hard. They have a point, and it goes deeper than one permit.
What the five-foot way was built for
The kaki lima is not a leftover gap between shop and road. It was designed as public space.
Stamford Raffles wrote the idea into his 1822 Town Plan for Singapore, requiring each house to have a verandah "open at all times" as a continuous covered passage. KL followed. When Frank Swettenham rebuilt the town after 1884, the new building by-laws required 5-foot passageways beside the road, according to architectural histories of the form.
The deal was simple. Landowners built the upper floor over the walkway and got more floor space. The public got shade and a dry path. In a city where it rains on roughly 200 days a year, that shelter is not decoration. It is infrastructure.
Traders have always used the kaki lima too — cobblers, key-cutters, kopitiam overflow. That mess is part of its character. The Taylor's University book Kaki Lima Stories collected 31 real-life accounts of people who work and live along downtown KL's five-foot ways. But informal sharing is different from a permit that turns the walkway into rentable floor space.
What DBKL's RM30 permit actually allows
According to The Star's report on the scheme, announced on 11 August:
- Traders can apply to place tables and chairs on the five-foot way for a flat RM30 a month.
- Applications are assessed on the suitability of the location and the width of the walkway.
- Under the previous system, only licensed eateries could apply, with priority for corner lots and dead-end spaces, and strict controls on placement and hours.
- Pedestrian routes, wheelchair access and emergency access must stay clear.
On paper, reasonable. The problem is what happens after the paperwork.
Who pays when the walkway fills up
The people who lose space first are the ones with the least room for error.
The Malaysian Association for the Blind put it bluntly: tactile paving is a lifeline, not decoration. A chair dragged onto that strip can push a visually impaired pedestrian into a collision or onto the road. Estimates cited in the same report put the number of visually impaired people navigating Brickfields at more than 300 a day.
Brickfields residents noted a pattern anyone who has eaten at a crowded shop will recognise: tables start where they are supposed to be, then drift as bigger groups sit down. Nobody moves them back.
A residents' group called the scheme "a very inexpensive licence to privatise public space at the public's expense" and urged DBKL to pause it until pedestrians and disability groups were consulted.
If you have walked Brickfields on foot, you have probably already stepped off the kerb to get around a table. That is the cost, and it lands on the person walking, not the person dining.
KL builds walkways and then gives them away
The frustrating part is that KL knows walkways matter. It keeps building them.
The KLCC–Bukit Bintang elevated walkway, 1.173 km of covered, air-conditioned bridge, opened in 2012. DBKL upgraded a 300-metre covered footpath to Sentul Barat MRT station this year specifically to help people walk the first and last mile to transit, The Star reported.
The five-foot way does the same job, already built, already shaded, in the neighbourhoods that most need foot traffic. Letting it fill with furniture for RM30 a month undercuts every new walkway the city pays for.
Outdoor dining is not the enemy. A kopitiam spilling onto the kaki lima is part of what makes old KL feel alive. The fix residents have proposed is not a ban. It is marking out the approved area, inspecting during evening and weekend trading, acting fast on tactile paving, and reviewing the scheme after six months with everyone at the table — including the people who can't see the table.
The five-foot way was written into KL's rules as a promise to the person on foot. It should stay that way.
FAQ
What is a five-foot way?
A five-foot way, or kaki lima, is the roofed continuous walkway in front of shophouses in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. It is named after its traditional minimum width, though many are wider or narrower.
Can eateries in KL put tables on the five-foot way?
Yes, with a DBKL permit. Since August 2026, the permit carries a flat RM30 monthly fee, and applications are assessed on location and walkway width. Pedestrian and wheelchair routes must remain clear.
Who do I complain to about a blocked five-foot way in KL?
Obstructions on public walkways in Kuala Lumpur fall under DBKL. Residents' groups have urged the city to act on complaints but also to carry out its own inspections.
Why is the five-foot way important for accessibility?
Many five-foot ways carry tactile paving used by visually impaired pedestrians. Furniture placed on that path can force people into obstacles or onto the road.
