Metamorphosing sprawl to walkable city: a study on the role of public transport – Muscat case study

Abstract

ABSTRACT The tolerance of urban sprawl has allowed private cars to become the dominant mode of transport in Muscat. Consequently, the associated sedentary lifestyle led to many health and social problems. Moreover, the rapid population growth started causing some sustainability challenges like high energy consumption and air pollution. Recently, public transit rather than the private vehicles started to gain popularity within academics. In Muscat, the urban sprawl was tolerated in its development schemes starting in the 1970s. However, the aforementioned issues caused the state to adopt new policies to mitigate those consequences. Accordingly, the National Transport Company (MWASALAT) was given the task of providing public transport service in 2014 in Muscat. However, many challenges remain given that only 0.5% of Muscat’s population are using its bus service. The main hypothesis of this research is that promoting public transit in cities with large urban sprawl must be within a comprehensive scheme to transform it into a walkable city utilizing other urban & landscape planning elements. Due to a complete lack of relevant studies, the main source of information was via interviews with two high ranking officials in MWASALAT, a survey given to a random sample of Muscat residents, and data analysis. In addition, drawing an interpretation from relevant references was also employed. The research provides some approaches to achieve the desired changes for one of the best examples of urban sprawl cities in Muscat; Madinat el Sultan Qaboos.