16/07/2014

The new urban challenges faced by cities in Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries provide a strong rationale for investment in various smart transportation solutions.

Within the GCC, according to International Data Corporation (IDC), four cities rank among the 250 cities worldwide expected to see the fastest growth between now and 2020 — Riyadh (43rd), Jeddah (51st), Makkah (85th), and Kuwait City (246th). This rapid population growth will strain existing infrastructure and is one of the major drivers of the increasing pursuit of smart transportation.

It is important to note that only a few cities in the GCC have a history of operating urban public transportation systems. The development of these systems is very recent, and in many cities is just ramping up now.

Rationalizing transport planning will be of rapidly mounting importance in the large cities of Saudi Arabia. The rapid urban sprawl of Riyadh is creating a very geographically large urban area, whereas in Jeddah, distances will grow because of the ability of the city grow effectively only north or south. At the same time, greater population density due to taller buildings, etc., will increase the burden on the existing infrastructure.

Smart public transportation will have to be an essential part of the solution but the scale and speed of its success will depend on pricing at a time when personal cars are heavily subsidized thanks to low fuel prices.

May need to differentiate in terms of costs, as now happens in some cities in the West. By increasing the cost of traveling and parking in central parts of cities, we create incentives for them to rely on public transportation. Also other options may need to be explored in terms of advantaging public transportation over personal cars.

Pilgrimages are also a key driver for the need to improve transportation solutions in the region. Makkah plays host to the annual Haj and year-round Umrah pilgrimages, and no other city in the world sees its population multiplied by three at least twice a year, every single year. And with this comes a pressing need to manage the regular flows of many millions of people descending on a well-defined yet limited space, the Haram and Haj zones.

According to a Cisco study, the number of urban population is growing by nearly 60 million every year. In addition, more than 60 percent of the world's population will be living in cities by 2050. Moreover, more than 100 cities of 1 million people will be built in the next 10 years.

Today's cities face a variety of challenges, including job creation, economic growth, environmental sustainability and social resilience.

Economic development relies on transportation infrastructure — to transport goods, to get citizens to their jobs, and to bring tourists and visitors to shops and attractions.

Here, European Commission’s document on mobilizing intelligent transport systems (ITS) for growing urban cities merits attention. As it points out, urban ITS can help to optimize existing infrastructures and to trigger new services to enhance the quality of life in urban areas.

ITS, which should be adapted to the particularly complex characteristics of urban mobility, are also important for economic development and innovation.

In an age of co-modality when the car is getting smarter and smarter and the types and sources of data larger and larger, new economic models combining different transport modes and services emerge with ITS as a core element.

Examples include multimodal travel information and planning services, smart ticketing, real time traffic information and cooperative systems.

Although the effectiveness of ITS tools/applications for dealing with urban mobility issues is well acknowledged, fragmentation remains an issue to be tackled through wide spreading of interoperable solutions and broad collaboration of all the stakeholders.

Whether such ITS tools/applications suit the Saudi cities that are urbanizing rapidly need to be studied threadbare before they are considered for implementation.

KHALIL HANWARE - Arab News