A New Vision for the Design Process of Sustainable Urban Transportation

Abstract

Nowadays, several new global trends have emerged, empathizing urban design dimension in the planning of transportation networks and keeping pace with urban, environmental and social development. These trends emerged into practice in many developed countries, aiming at achieving sustainability, improving the built environment, reducing and addressing the environmental impacts resulted from the misuse of local resources of the environment, improving public health and providing better quality of life. The patterns of these trends varied in both urban design and urban transportation. The frameworks of both urban design and urban transportation are closely linked to these modern trends, each of which relies on its own practical framework and is adapted to the local conditions according to the type and pattern of urbanization in which these trends originated. It is worth mentioning that the crosscutting points and the linkages between the two areas, urban design and urban transportation, clearly exist in a global methodological frameworks covering the design process in both fields. Hence, the research gap to be covered in this paper is creating a global framework that covers the design process in both fields.The objectives of urban design are closely related to the objectives of urban transportation. This makes it necessary to integrate these two fields in a clear and systematic framework that suits and meets the needs of the urban content of the Egyptian society. Taking into consideration the pace of development taking place in both areas at the global level, and the emergence of many attempts integrating both the theoretical and the operational level. The Egyptian society faces a large gap between the current situation of the Egyptian urbanization and the extent of the application of these modern global trends due to the absence of the importance of integrating urban design dimension in planning urban transportation in existing urban cities.In this context, the paper seeks to reach a comprehensive vision that combines the two fields in order to improve the urban built environment and reduce the problems associated with the urban transportation sector in Egypt with aid of many of the modern global trends that dealt with this subject and reached many solutions that can be adopted in Egypt. The paper adopted the formulation of a generalized framework that includes the dimension of urban design in the planning and design of urban transport networks and included two pillars. (a) Proposing an ideological framework elaborating the integrated design process, which includes the use of the global modern trends in urban design and urban transportation at the functional urban, social, environmental and economic level; (b) Proposing a theoretical phased design process in line with the local Egyptian reality, which includes different application levels for planning, design, management, development and operation.