Sección 7, Inspecciones especiales

North American patterns of urban development 2.4.1

According to Cervero (2005), Saudi cities resemble American patterns of urban development and transportation more closely than those of western Europe. Many cities, especially in North America, have decentralised homes and jobs, leading to a growth in suburb-to-suburb commuting and a corresponding shift from public transportation to the car (Cervero, 2005). Cities in the US are known for their ‘strip development’ and activity spines of the sort brought about by the Doxiadis plan (Middleton, 2009). Other cities in developing oil-producing countries have experienced a similar trend, with most of them not having fully formed public transport systems in place before the introduction of automobiles. Riyadh can be seen as a classic example of an urban environment designed solely around a car-based infrastructure.

In contrast with Riyadh and most American cities, where urban transport policy is still focused on the private car, many cities in Europe have managed to provide viable public transport options, even for the suburb-to-suburb commuter (Vuchic, 2005). This is because most European cities used public transport systems before there were cars. This developmental timeline could be important if public transport options are to be applied

‘out of sequence’ (i.e. after the arrival of the car), as in Riyadh’s case. This developmental sequence also brings to the fore issues of how policies and best practice in Europe, for example, might transfer to a context such as Riyadh’s (see Chapter 3).

Cheap petrol 2.4.2

A major factor in Riyadh’s car dominance is that petrol is cheap. At the time of writing, a litre of petrol in Saudi Arabia costs USD 0.2 compared with USD 1.45 in the UK and USD 0.62 in the US. Fuel prices, therefore, are not the barrier in Saudi Arabia that they might be elsewhere. This is because Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s largest oil-producing nations (Pengonda, 2014).

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There are two direct side effects to this. The first is that the city’s oil boom (from the 1960s onwards) made millions of dollars available to the government to invest in continued development. The expansion of much-needed services was apparent in governmental decrees from Saudi Arabian royalty (Mubarak, 2004), and it is from such decrees that master plans like Doxiadis’s came into being.

The second side effect is cheap fuel. For many years, petrol prices in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have been the cheapest in the Gulf and among the lowest in the world.

Only the most recent cuts in subsidies bring Saudi Arabia in line with most of its neighbours, whose fuel prices are still considerably cheaper than those of western Europe, America and eastern Asia.

At the beginning of 2016, Saudi Arabia increased the price of petrol by two-thirds to 0.75 riyals (USD 0.2) per litre, and from 0.45 riyals (USD 0.12) for 91-octane (Laodme.com, 2016). According to Figure 2.10, this is 72% lower than the next lowest-priced nation (the US), and a substantial 60% cheaper than fuel prices in the UK. What this means is that the social dimension for providing public transport is often more important than some issues that receive more attention in western cities, such as fuel costs. Put simply – and uniquely for Riyadh - the supply of cheap fuel is not an issue (Al-Dubikhi, 2007).

Figure 2.11 Comparison of petrol prices worldwide (source; Pengonda, 2014)

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Economic and demographical aspects 2.4.3

According to Alfoazn (2011), there are four factors affecting future growth in car ownership in Riyadh: 1) The age profile, since a significantly higher than average proportion of the population is below driving age, 2) The average household size is large at 6.1 people, 3) The fact that women (due to cultural norms in Saudi Arabia) and a proportion of the expatriate workforce (due to licencing requirements) are not allowed to drive, and 4) Some of the ownership rates for international cities may include total vehicle fleets rather than just those vehicles which are available to households (thus artificially deflating the total for Riyadh).

In the future, according to the Riyadh Development Authority (ADA, 2015), the rate of vehicle ownership could increase as a result of changes in all these factors, in particular the age structure of the population, household formation, wealth and urban sprawl. This will be as a key issue for Riyadh, and will have an impact on the success or otherwise of policy interventions aimed at solving these problems (policy transfer will be covered in detail in Chapter 3).

Another significant reason why Riyadh is a car-based city is that people with access to cars simply never use public transport. The availability of private cars and their low running costs contribute strongly to this. For example, by global standards, car taxation in KSA is negligible: the registration charge is just SAR 250 (USD 66.7). Upper, middle and even working class Saudi residents tell visitors that public transport is for foreign workers or those travelling by employer-paid transport only (Al-Dubikhi, 2007).

Where a private car is not available, many residents prefer to use a taxi instead of public transport. Riyadh is following, indeed amplifying, the Western or North American example in terms of automobile dependency. The expression many people ha ve built their way of life around their cars is absolutely true of Riyadh (Al-Dubikhi, 2007).

In terms of the economic aspects, Saudi Arabia has experienced continued growth, which has attracted internal and external migration , mainly from people travelling into or within the country to work. A third of the city's population consists of expatriates

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with fixed-term contracts, a large proportion of whom, due to their temporary status, are not allowed to drive (Al-Dubikhi, 2007). Because of the nature of the ir employment contracts and conditions, these workers have to travel in private buses or trucks (and their employers usually provide this transport).

However, as younger Saudis have begun to join the workforce, a national movement referred to as ‘Saudisation’ has become widespread over the past decade (Al-Dubikhi, 2007). This refers to a national strategy encouraged by the Saudi government to address unemployment and replace foreign labour with Saudi workers by supporting he private sector. This may reduce dependence on economic immigrants, particularly in management and professional positions. This means that itinerant foreign workers who are not permitted to drive will be replaced by Saudi nationals who are, so travel behaviour will change and the number of daily trips will increase (Al-Dubikhi, 2007).

Active travel and the effects of the climate 2.4.4

Riyadh’s climate is extremely hot in summer and cold in winter, and characterised by low humidity throughout the year, especially in the summer. Equally, there is a big difference between day and night-time temperatures. High car dependency is in large part determined by these climatic conditions. Summer temperatures in Riyadh reach 57⁰ C, which results in a low proportion of trips made on foot or by bike. The e lderly, children and those with special needs may not be able to walk at all during most of the summer, especially during the day. The large geographical area the city covers (as described in Section 2.3) contributes further to the increase in private car use, since many destinations are not within walking or cycling distance, even without taking the climate into consideration.

Correspondingly, the pedestrian environment is a not well developed, with limited or no provision for sidewalks in most instances along major roads, and discontinuous sidewalks where these do exist. It’s difficult for pedestrians to cross streets, given the wide intersection spacing, high speed and volume of traffic and the general lack of provision for pedestrians at signalised intersections (Alfozan, 2011).

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Clearly, there are several complex and compelling reasons why car dependency in Riyadh is so high. While conferring many perceived benefits on Riyadh’s citizens, however, this car dependency brings a number of disadvantages, one of which is severe congestion. Congestion, as a concept, is defined and explored in the following section.

Congestion 2.5

Talukdar (2013) defines congestion as: essentially a relative phenomenon that is linked to the difference between the roadway system performance that users expect and how the system actually performs.

In transportation engineering terms, congestion can be described using three interrelated factors: speed, flow and density. Speed, of course, is the rate of vehicle movement.

Flow is the rate at which vehicles pass a given point measured over a specified time period (e.g. vehicles per hour). Density is the number of vehicles occupying a unit of road space at any given moment (e.g. vehicles per mile).

Every transport facility has a characteristic relationship between these primary traffic parameters, a relationship that forms the core of transportation engineering and is know as the Greenshields Model. So-called macroscopic stream models, of which the Greenshields Model is the best known, represent how the behaviour of one parameter of traffic flow changes in respect to another. Figures 2.10, 2.11 and 2.12 illustrate the relationships between speed, flow and density according to the Greenshields Model (T.

Mathew et al., 2007).

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Figure 2.12 Relationship between speed and flow (Source: T. Mathew et al., 2007)

Figure 2.13 Relationship between flow and density (Source: T. Mathew et al., 2007)

Figure 2.14 Relationship between speed and density (Source: T. Mathew et al., 2007)

According to Mathew et al. (2007), the most important of the fundamental relationships is the one between speed and density (Equation 1). The Greenshields Model proposes a

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simple relationship between these two parameters, one that is assumed to be linear (T.

Mathew et al., 2007). The equation for this relationship is shown below:

Equation 1 Greenshields Model equation

where v is the mean speed at density k, vf is the free-flow speed and kj is the jam density. The equation shows that when density approaches zero, speed approaches the free-flow or design speed of the road (i.e. v → vf when k→0).

Congestion, as experienced by users of a transport facility, occurs when speeds are low and densities high (Talukdar, 2013). It’s important to note, however, that, even in these conditions, traffic flows can be high. Indeed, there is an optimal point at which these three factors balance to give the maximum capacity available (see Figure 2.13). Beyond that point, the infrastructure’s performance is suboptimal, causing congestion (Talukdar, 2013).

Figure 2.15 Speed-flow relationship and traffic congestion ( Source: Talukdar, 2013)

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An interesting feature of congestion is the difference in the way a transport user experiences it and the way a transport engineer defines it. An unpleasantly crowded, slow-moving road might be congested from the driver’s point of view, but may in fact be performing at its maximum engineering and economic capacities. There are thus several different measures of congestion. A selection of these is defined in Table 2.2:

Table 2.2 A summary of different congestion measure indicators, meanings and definitions (Source: Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2011; Author)

Congestion Indicators (Measures)

Meaning and definition Whole Riyadh particular roadway or at an intersection, rated from appears an attractive way of reducing vehicle numbers and traffic density and, in turn, increasing speeds. As mentioned earlier, public transport is one of the key factors behind congestion issues, thus, it is time now to study public transport in Saudi Arabia.

The following section discusses public transport in detail.

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Public transport in Saudi Arabia