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Five foot way


Five foot ways (Malay/Indonesian: Kaki lima) are paved pedestrian walkways, 5 feet (1.524 metres) in width, projecting from the ground floor of a building into the road. This feature can be found in many shophouses (and buildings of similar structural design) all over the world, and also in some office buildings.

The examples of five foot pedestrian walkways can be found dated from colonial Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Such as those walkways along Old Batavia in Jakarta, Braga Street in Bandung, Georgetown in Penang and Shenton Way in Singapore. In Indonesia, the term kaki lima has become synonymous with street food, since in the country numbers of warung humble tent shops or gerobak food carts often occupying this five-foot wide pedestrian sidewalks.

The term five-foot describes the width of the sidewalks projected from the wall of the building into the street. The overhanging canopy, roof extension, or projected upper floor on top of the five foot pathways can provide a cover to shield pedestrians from the sun and rain. As the ground floor of most commercial buildings in downtown areas are shops or eating places, the five foot ways can also function as a corridor for people to window-shop or stop by for some refreshments.

As implied by name, five foot ways were intended to assume a consistent width of five feet from the absolute front to the wall and entrance defining the frontal of the inner space, but the guideline is not necessarily applied universally, as certain five foot ways are wider or narrower depending on the age, size, and function of the building.


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Wikipedia

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