Urban Transport in the OIC Megacities
30
Despite the fact that the traditional functions and shape of the cities in the developing world could
have favoured NMT oriented transport and land use planning policies, the political attitudes towards
pedestrians and cyclists have been neglectful or even negative. Pedestrian space is continuously being
eroded. Footways either do not exist or they are occupied by street vendors, parked cars, motorcycles,
and bicycles. Even in cities like Dakar, where walking has a high modal share, the lack of pedestrian
infrastructure and the poorly connected streets make it difficult to undertake long walking trips. As
city authorities find it difficult to manage and control street market, pedestrian and cycling activities,
the trend has been to eliminate them altogether, rather than taking a functional approach to road
hierarchy, whereby the functions of some roads could be for pedestrians and market activities and not
for fast flowingmotor vehicle traffic. In addition, policies introducing reductions in the number of non-
motorized vehicles and movement restrictions have often been adopted as viable solutions to reduce
traffic congestion and the consumption of fuel. For example, restrictions on NMT were one of the main
initiatives taken in 2002 by the government of Bangladesh in order to improve air quality in Dhaka
(World Bank, 2002; Alam and Rabbani, 2007; Diakhate, 2007; Cervero, 2013).
Various complex reasons can be identified behind the lack of official interest in planning for NMT. To
begin with, there is often a lack of interest by engineers who favour the dealing with more technically
challenging road and bridge design. At the same time, there is often lack of transport planning and
design skills in order to apply large scale NTM solutions appropriate for the large volumes of NMT
trips in developing world megacities. Local initiative to promote NMT may also be limited by the lack
of funding from central governments. In addition, it is often difficult for the police to focus the
enforcement of NMT routes and on the lack of respect of cyclists for traffic regulations. Finally, car and
motorcycle users seem to have a vested interest in reducing the nuisance caused by slowmoving NMT
(World Bank, 2002).
On the other hand, there are also major limitations that prevent citizens from the choosing or continue
using NMT. Safety and security concerns and air pollution caused by motorized transport are the most
important reasons that render NMT non-viable in many of the megacities of the developing world. As
a result, people shift to public or private motorized transport or become less mobile, a choice that not
only has significant impacts on the economies of households but also on the economies of
agglomerations.
Sociocultural conventions are also an important factor affecting NMT use. Waking is in most cases not
associated with status as, regardless of their income, everyone walks for short trips or for the last leg
of multimodal trips. On the other hand, cycling is often associated with poverty, while the car is a
status symbol. For example, results from a study carried out in Cairo showed that a considerable
number of Egyptians, especially academics and students, approved of cycling in theory but would not
choose to switch to it, partially because of the social stigma. In accordance to social norms, cycling can
be acceptable for youth and leisure but not for commuting or as a conscious choice of transport mode.
Gender specific norms and conventions also pose restrictions to use of NMT, particularly by women.
Cycling is often culturally unacceptable for women as the exposure of the female body by moving is
considered inappropriate. In addition, women who cycle may often face verbal and physical
harassment. It is noted however, that women are usually taking more complex and shorter trips than
men, and they could benefit from the flexibility and reliability offered by cycling (Peters, 2002;
Aichinger and Reinbacher, 2010).
In most developing countries NMT has developed spontaneously and remains largely outside the
normal processes of transport planning. Provision for NMT, when constructed, seems to be retrofitted
to existing infrastructure, and to concentrate on minimising the disturbance that it causes to the flow
of motorized traffic. This often results in the construction of expensive and often inconvenient
infrastructure for NMT, such as open pedestrian footbridges for crossing busy roads. In this case, it is
generally considered best practice that in order to retrofit NMT in what was originally designed for
motorized transport, it is necessary to also modify the existing elements. For example, some level of
traffic calming and reduction in speed differentiation between motorized and non-motorized traffic is
necessary when a new cycle lane is introduced on an existing road (World Bank, 2002).