Urban Transport in the OIC Megacities
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environment. Walking and cycling are the most efficient and sustainable means of making short trips,
as they do not generate air pollution, greenhouse gases, or noise pollution. It is generally accepted that
the number of pedestrians and cyclist in the cities of the developed world depends on the extent to
which people are invited to walk or cycle and is not generated by necessity. In many cities, walking
and cycling maintain high modal shares, regardless of the topographical and weather conditions.
Integration between different modes and equal rights for all road users to safely choose the mode they
wish, provide an essential base for the success of transport policies (Gehl, 2010).
In terms of walking, research has shown that it is highly dependent of the urban design, the
connectivity of pedestrian routes, the obstacles encountered on their way, the interaction with the
crowd and other modes, and even the quality of the pavements. The architectural characteristics of a
city play a significant role in improving the pedestrian experience. At the same time, the interaction of
pedestrians with other modes at pedestrian crossings, exit of stations and shared spaces needs to be
carefully planned in order to cater for the free movement of slower modes. Stairs and steps, multi
stage pedestrian crossings, underpasses and footbridges are generally considered among the most
uninviting pedestrian features (Gehl, 2010).
The distance that pedestrians are most commonly willing to walk is 500m. The majority of the city
centres in the developed world are covering an area of one square kilometre which means that a walk
of a kilometre or less will bring pedestrians to most of the centres of a city. Megacities have
corresponding patterns, as they are divided into numerous centres and districts. The acceptable
walking distance does not change because the city is larger.
Although cycling can be considered a rapid form of walking as an experience in the urban
environment, it requires higher level of design and planning integration than walking. This is the
reason why, in developed and car dominated cities, cycling modal shares range between 1 and 2% is
dominated by cycling enthusiasts, mostly male and young. This is the reason why there are few
examples of cycling cities, primarily concentrated in Europe. For example, Copenhagen is an example
of a city with a longstanding cycling tradition. During the oil crisis of the 1970s, Copenhagen adopted
a clearly defined cycling approach in transport planning and kept car traffic at low levels ever since.
Key actions that Copenhagen and other cycling cities have taken include building an extensive and
seamless network of dedicated cycling lanes, and integration of cycling with other modes such as
trains, subways and even taxis with dedicated spaces for bikes on trains or vehicles, and parking
spaces at stations and terminal points. Safety is also a prerequisite for the widespread take up of
cycling, especially at intersections, where cyclists interact with other traffic. Intersections in
Copenhagen have special lights signals for bikes, which typically give a green light to bicycle traffic six
seconds before cars.
Bicycle sharing programmes are also widespread in many cities and megacities of the developed
world. There are different levels of take up depending on the cycling culture of each city. In
traditionally cycling cities, cycle ownership is already high and therefore sharing schemes are targeted
to new cyclists, visitors or tourists. On the other hand, in cities like Paris, where the cycling is not so
widespread, shared bikes are mostly used by locals and the schemes make part of efforts to build and
reinforce the cycling culture of citizens.
Other efforts to promote both walking and cycling in cities include educational campaigns in schools
and open streets only for walking and cycling on Sundays. The latter is in fact not limited to developed
world cities as the idea of closing streets to traffic once a week has been popular in Latin American
cities for years. An example of a megacity that has recently made coordinated efforts to increase the
share of cycling is New York City, which planned in 2007 the construction of 3,000km of cycling lanes
in all five of its boroughs. The city also introduced ‘summer streets’ dedicated to NMT on Saturdays
during the summer months. It is expected that, in the future, concerns about sustainability will lead
more developed world megacities to increase their efforts to develop stronger cycling cultures (Gehl,
2010).