Urban Transport in the OIC Megacities
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1. Introduction
1.1. Scope and Description of the Study
Since cities are locations that have a high level of accumulation and concentration of economic activity,
the most important transport problems are often related to urban areas. Recent decades have
witnessed an increasing number of attempts to manage developing cities sustainably and provision of
a balanced transport system is widely recognised as central to these actions. Urban transport issues
are of utmost importance to support passengers and freight mobility requirements of large urban
agglomerations. Transport in urban areas is highly complex because of the modes involved, multitude
of origins and destination and the amount and variety of transport modes. Cities are also increasingly
involved in trading patterns on a global scale, which makes the efficiency of their transport systems
more critical.
COMCEC has clearly recognised the fundamental role of effective and efficient transport in the OIC
megacities for the economic development of its Member Countries. One of the six cooperation areas
of COMCEC is transport and communications. Transportation is important for COMCEC to ensure the
movement of passengers and freight are integrated and facilitated among its member states. Against
this background COMCEC has commissioned WYG and Fimotions to carry out the Urban Transport in
OIC Megacities study. The purpose of the study is:
 To investigate the latest global megacity transport trends via a desk top literature review.
 To provide an assessment of the urban transport system in three selected megacities of OIC
member states.
 To identify the most pressing urban transport problems and identify those that are common
to the OIC megacities and present the results in the form of a SWOT analysis.
 To identify common challenges and develop practical recommendations to overcome these
obstacles through suggesting a framework for policy actions to be implemented by the
authorities of the selected megacities.
The ultimate aim of the study is to trigger a serious debate among OIC member countries on urban
transport related issues and how to address these efficiently. As such the study will be presented at
the 6th meeting of the COMCEC Transport and Communications Working Group on 22/10/15 in
Ankara, Turkey.
1.2. Background to Work Undertaken
A literature review, including desk research of different global megacities (both OIC and non OIC
megacities) has been undertaken based on publicly available documents supplemented by
WYG/Fimotions dialogue with WYG/Fimotions contacts in the various megacities. The review
examined typical issues and problems experienced bymegacities including population growth, ageing
population, social and health inequality and poverty, poor air quality and pollution, accessibility needs
of different social groups (e.g. disabled, older people, unemployed, young people and those working
unsociable hours), transport availability, road safety and network constraints. The review also
considered freight and servicing issues.
The literature review also summarized the key strategies and policies that cities have applied to solve
some of the key problems and challenges. The strategies included (but not limited to); urban growth
alternatives such as smart growth policies and transit-oriented development, organization and
operation of public transport systems, investment policy in urban transport, traffic management
policy, travel demand management, intelligent transportation system applications, strengthening
traffic enforcement, building urban transport institutions, affordability of urban transport services,
and financing policy.
The literature review paid close attention to Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) (walking and cycling)
policies as this is mostly forgotten or neglected in many discussions about urban transport strategies