JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE, VOL. 66, NO. 6, DEC. 2019, PP. 703-725 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, CAIRO UNIVERSITY CHALLENGES FOR CYCLING AND WALKING IN NEW CITIES IN EGYPT, EXPERIENCE OF ELSHEIKH ZAYED CITY 1 T. ELSERAFI ABSTRACT Although cycling and walking are considered as green modes of mobility, the urban planning of the new cities in Egypt is encouraging the vehicular use dependency more than cycling and walking. The urban planning model in these cities; such as the 6th of October or Elsheikh Zayed city, is depending on low density residential areas with many urban open areas. Such model increases the distances of the inhabitants’ journeys from their houses to services and other activities. In addition to the long distances, the streets and sidewalks are not designed properly for the cycling and pedestrian movement. Therefore, people living at these cities are mainly using private cars or public transportation for their daily movement, depending on their social level. Recent actions have been taken and implemented to enhance the cycling and pedestrian movement environment, but the car use dependency is still very high. This paper illustrates the situation of the cycling and pedestrian movement at Elsheikh Zayed City and the influence of the urban planning on the people behavior in mobility choice. Moreover, this paper focuses on the recent actions implemented in this concern and how much effective they are. KEYWORDS: Mobility Green Modes, Cycling, Pedestrian, and Elsheikh Zayed City. 1. INTRODUCTION The urban planning of the new cities in Egypt is western oriented towards car dominant model. From another point of view, a sustainable mobility in cities should consider other choices including pedestrian, cycling and public transportation. This paper investigates the urban planning of new cities in Egypt, focuses on the shift towards a sustainable mobility approaches, and defines the parameters of bike and pedestrian friendly cities. In addition, this paper demonstrates the existing condition of cycling and walking in Elsheikh Zayed City, as a model for one of the new cities in Egypt. A survey has been conducted to address the key challenges for promoting cycling and walking in new cities, moreover it includes recommendations for enhancing the city as a bike and pedestrian friendly city. 1 Assistant Professor at the Department of Architectural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University. [email protected] T. ELSERAFI 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Since the middle of 1970s, the Egyptian government started to follow a western urban planning model in developing new urban settlements all over Egypt, regardless the local parameters which is different from the parameters at USA or Europe. This urban planning model is oriented towards car dominant approach. It created a lot of challenges for cycling and walking in these cities. On the other hand, there are many movements towards sustainable mobility; including Transit-Oriented-Development, New Urbanism and Smart Growth. Many researches followed these movements to identify the parameters and guidelines for making bike and pedestrian friendly cities. 2.1. The Start of the New Cities in Egypt During the 20th century, until 1973 new urban settlements in Egypt were established. But only after the end of the October-1973-war, the construction of new cities in Egypt has become a national strategic goal. After the war, the Egyptian government started a national plan for socio-economic and urban development. The plan had the goals of: decentralization of the congested urban development along the Nile valley and Delta, building self-contained growth poles in the desert [1], stopping the sprawl on rural areas, and developing enough housing for the rapid growing population [2]. In 1979, Law No. 59 was announced to organize and control the creation of new urban settlements. There were three generations of these new urban settlements. The Egyptian Government invited western experiences on planning and developing the first generation of the new cities. This made the new urban planning of these cities follows the western urban planning principles not the local urban planning principles [3]. The average density of the new pattern is very low (100p/ha) comparing to the high-density pattern of the old districts in Egypt. This happened as a result of the low percentage of built up areas (20-40%) [4]. First generation of these new urban settlement started in the middle 1970s and lasted till early 1980s. Two different types of towns were built: 1. Self-contained cities; independent from existing cities and includes its own economic base. 2. Dependent cities; they are located adjacent to existing cities to take advantage of employment 704 CHALLENGES FOR CYCLING AND WALKING IN NEW CITIES IN …. opportunities and services in the existing cities, in order to provide cheaper prices for land plots and housing [5]. Second generation of the new urban settlements started in the beginning of the 1980s and lasted till the middle of the 1980s. This generation, also, included: self-contained cities and dependent cities. The only difference was that dependent cities were Twin Cities; for example; New Bani Sweif twin with existing Bani Sweif city in Upper Egypt [5]. Third generation started in the middle of the 1980s and lasted until the late of the 1980s; most of these cities were built in Upper Egypt as twin cities with existing cities. This period included the start of the establishment of ten urban settlements around the Greater Cairo with the ring road connecting them. Until this moment the Egyptian government continues its plans for building new cities [2]. Recently, the Egyptian Government took the decision to start the New Administrative Capital project in the east of New Cairo city. The new city is planned to cover an area of 168 feddan. The urban planning model of the new city follows the western urban planning principles with low densities urban fabrics [6]. 2.2. Urban Planning Model of New Cities versus Pedestrian and Cycling Movement The urban planning of the new developments of these new urban settlements, which was established more than forty years ago, ignores the principles of the conventional urban planning for the desert environment [7, 8]. The compact-city pattern was the typical Egyptian urban form. Such compact pattern was high dense, and the activities were very diverse. The dense accessible network was the common form [9]. The conventional urban form has disappeared and a scattered pattern, or so called western or modern styles, has been introduced in the new cities with many concerns regarding its sustainability [8]. On the other hand, these cities do not have enough and suitable economic base for all its inhabitants, so many inhabitants still have to daily commute to the nearby existing cities, or its twin city. This generated a lot of traffic on the connecting roads between the new settlements and the city core. In addition, the private car ownership has been increased due to the deficiencies in the public transportation system. The car ownership in Greater Cairo has increased from 46 cars/1000 inhabitants in 1996 to 76 cars/1000 inhabitants in 2006 and is still increasing [10]. 705 T. ELSERAFI 2.2.1. Public transportation in new cities Some studies show that 6th of October City as a sample for these new urban settlements suffers from lack of public transportation and poor accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists. For many years, poor public transportation has been identified as one of the main obstacles to the development of 6th of October City. The public transportation is not only needed within the city, but also, a rapid and affordable public transportation is needed for the city to become fully linked to the metropolitan area of Greater Cairo. Although the 26th of July Axis extension was established in 1999 specifically to improve the 6th of October’s road links to Cairo, and even though private minibuses now serve the city on a regular basis, inter-city public transit remains a problem. Still the connection between the public transportation system and pedestrians and cyclists is not considered in the planning of the system. Interviews to different stakeholders has been conducted through these studies and ended up with the need for attention to public transportation and subsidies in general. Considerable attention to public transportation solutions for the city, considering that an integrated transportation system (combining intercity mass transit with a local bus network in a hub) is an essential element. Such transportation system should be more reliable, convenient, frequent, affordable, and safe [11]. On the other hand, the new cities are not connected yet with the underground metro network and relies only on buses and microbuses to get linked to the metropolitan cities. In Greater Cairo, there are plans for 2050 to get the new urban settlements around Cairo connected through the underground metro [10]. 2.2.2. Car dominant model versus pedestrian and cycling movement Residential neighbourhood in the new cities are characterized by wide, straight streets and small amounts of nodes. These cities are mainly oriented for car use and is inconvenient for pedestrian and cyclists, however the target of these cities is mainly middle and low-income classes [4]. The insufficient public transportation system led inhabitants to rely on private cars. Therefore, the percentage of users of public transportation decreased from 31% in 1996 to 21% in 2001 and still decreasing [10]. 706 CHALLENGES FOR CYCLING AND WALKING IN NEW CITIES IN …. Following this car-dominant-model of urban planning, the field of transportation development tended to worsen the pedestrian environment. The degradation of the walking and cycling in new cities was strongly related to the loss of intimate scales in streets, as it became a separator between the people and the cars.