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efforts. The period of reconstruction in the 1990s relaxed some of the limits of the 1968 plan, which
showed the urgent need for an updated planning framework (Madanipour, 2006).
The municipality of Tehran produced its own strategic plan for the period 1996– 2001, known as
Tehran Municipality’s First Plan, or Tehran 80. The plan allowed higher densities through bonus
zoning. This, however, was not based on planning considerations, but was mainly to bring financial
autonomy to the municipality. Developers could build taller buildings by paying fines to the
municipality, in a policy popularly known as ‘‘selling density’’, without having to show their impacts
on the surrounding environment. The face of the city, particularly in its northern parts, was
transformed in a short period, consisting of medium to high rise buildings connected through wide
streets and motorways. In the poorer south, a major redevelopment project, Navab, cut a motorway
through the dense and decayed fabric, building superstructures on each side (Madanipour, 2006).
This controversial period of reconstruction was followed by a period of democratic reform, which re-
launched an elected city council for the city. The council published its own vision of the city as Tehran
Charter in 2001, which was the summary of the principles agreed between council members,
nongovernmental principles, which were used to develop strategies for natural and built
environments, transport, social, cultural and economic issues, urban management, and the city’s
regional, national and international roles (Madanipour, 2006).
National government started work on a transport master plan for Iran at about this time, using outside
consultants, looking at the investment needed to satisfy the growing demand and to try plan better
for the future. With Tehran as the capital city and also the main urban centre for generating wealth, it
was important to develop a transport master plan for Tehran that would also support the national
transport plan (Allen, 2013).
5.5.3. Mode availability
In Tehran, 22% of trips are made by bus, 23% by shared taxi, 10% by metro, 10% by minibus, 7%
walking and cycling (NMT) and 28% by private car (Allen, 2013).
5.5.3.1. Private motorized vehicles
Private motorized vehicles are still expensive to buy but their number is expected to grow by almost
60%within the next twenty years as people will be able to afford goods vehicles, cars and motorbikes.
Increase in private car travel is observed but many vehicles are used for more than one purpose due
to their high buying cost. Nonetheless, in 2009, the existing heavy subsidies on fuels were removed in
order to cut down the use of private motorized vehicles. In addition, Tehran is one of the few cities in
the region that has put in place comprehensive demand management measures to restrict vehicle
access to inner Tehran by implementing a Congestion Charging System. Access of all vehicles to the
inner central business district (19 square kilometres) has been restricted since 1981 which was later
extended to cover 31 square kilometres. An annual fee has to be paid to enter this area and an even
and odd number plate enforcement is in place in a slightly larger zone. Trucks and lorries are
restricted across a larger area. At first, monitoring was done by the police via 65 gateway entrances
but this was difficult to enforce and violations ran at over 30%. Today measures include the
implementation of automatic speed cameras, and automatic control system (Allen, 2013).
5.5.3.2. Public transport
As part of historic legacy, even in the late nineties, Tehran had a reasonably dense, quite heavily used
but ageing network of suburban and intercity rail transport services. In addition, the metropolitan
area of Tehran has an extended network of highways (280 km) and of interchange ramps & loops
(180km). In 2007 there were 130 kilometres of highways and 120 kilometres of ramps and loops
under construction (Tehran Municipality, 2015).
A metro system had been planned since the 1970s but only became operational in 2001. Problems
arising from the late completion of the metro led to buses taking on the role of the metro lines, serving
mainly long distance routes while a large number of taxis filled the void for local journeys. The taxis