Urban Transport in the OIC Megacities
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it has a significant impact on the quality of life and contributes to the time savings of a large, active
part of the society (Hayden, 1980; Jain et al, 2011).
Efforts have been made to understand the complexity of women’s travel needs in order to move
forward the debates of gender and sustainable mobility. The majority of the studies on women’s
transport needs examine the potential of bottom up innovation by understanding their time space
needs and constraints and proposing solutions that can be introduced by women as users of the
transport system. For example, a study on the everyday context of transport for British women who
combine parenting and part time work, showed that the solutions women find, although not
necessarily innovative, were inherent in the selection of transport mode, and specific ICT related
rescheduling in real-time. The ‘school run’ by whatever mode and despite the time constraints
appeared to have an important role in the lives of this group of women, notable for the time it gives
for social interaction. Thus, this suggests the issue is how to maintain this journey with their children
sustainably while coordinating it with journey with work, should be the policy focus (Jain et al, 2011).
Research on the complexity women’s mobility needs has also revealed flaws in widely accepted policy
tools such as the implementation of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes where cars with only two
passengers or more can travel. It has been argued that, although women are more likely than men to
have passengers in their cars during some parts of their journey on a daily basis, for example children
on the way to school, this is not as easy in their last lap on the way to their workplace. Especially part
time working women, it is less likely to have regular journey times and patterns and therefore it is not
as easy as for men to arrange car sharing with other commuters (Cresswell and Uteng, 2008; Jain et
al, 2011).
In terms of equal access for people with disabilities, developed world megacities have been making
significant progress towards providing improved access to public transport, infrastructure and public
spaces in response to strong advocacy. For example, a number of European countries have introduced
legislation governing the rights of disabled people or concerning accessibility to public transport and
the built environment in 2000. Legislation is supported guidance, information campaigns and training.
In addition, legislation is often regionalised in order tomeet the specific needs of different areas within
a city, and busy urban environments in particular. Additional services, particularly door-to-door and
dial-a-ride services, are often offered in order to facilitate the movement of people with mobility
problems. However, it should be noted that even in high income countries, implementation has spread
slowly and the overall impact still remains disappointing in many cases (Venter et al, 2002; World
Bank, 2004).
Solutions for seamless access are easier to apply in newer transport systems and vehicles. For
example, TfL asks their passengers to check which Tube stations provide step free access before
travelling and provides detailed information and maps showing which stations are accessible. Despite
the fact that all bus routes in London are served by low floor vehicles with dedicated wheelchair
spaces and access ramps, only a quarter of the Tube stations have step free access. On the contrary,
newer urban rail systems in London such as the tram stops and the Docklands Light Railway (DLR)
offer full step free access.
It is also important to note that many transport planning authorities have recognised the fact that
accessible transport is not only related to vehicles and stations. Pedestrian infrastructure throughout
the cities should be focused on facilitating the movement of people with disabilities. Unobstructed and
well maintained footways are a key element of accessible city. Additional features such as tactile
paving and detectable warnings assisting pedestrians who are blind or visually impaired are often
installed in indoor or outdoor pedestrian spaces. Other examples include audible traffic signals and
signals equipped with rotating tactile indicators which facilitated the interaction of people with sight
or hearing disabilities with other traffic.
Finally, the efforts to improve accessibility for the elderly population have been started to increase
over the past few decade. However, specifically targeted measures and research are still limited. As