Doha | Location-based Workshops | Track 5: Qatar Rail / Doha Metro

This paper investigates the possible influence of the operation of Doha Metro on travel mode choice behavior in Doha City, Qatar. The metro will play an important role in easing the movement of residents and visitors to Doha city during the FIFA World Cup 2022 and in achieving Qatar Vision 2030. The current airport travel mode choice in the city and the future mode choice behavior after introducing the metro were analyzed as a case study to examine the effectiveness and efficiency of Doha Metro to attract travelers. Revealed preference (RP) and stated preference (SP) survey questionnaires were designed to collect the necessary data. Discrete choice binary logit and multinomial logit models were utilized to analyze the data on the current and future mode choice, respectively. Various trip characteristics were found to be significant in determining mode choice, including number of travelers and bags, journey time, cost of the trip, and reimbursement of parking fees. In addition, different socio-economic characteristics proved to be significant for the current and future mode choice, including nationality, income, age, employment status, and vehicle ownership. Different transportation policies based on results of the analysis can be formulated to enhance the current and future public transportation network.

The opening of the Doha Metro in 2019 has highlighted a perceived lack of connection between several stations of the new public transport system and their surrounding neighborhoods. Such connections are a crucial component for promoting walkability as an alternative mode of transport instead of private vehicles in a growing metropolis. The inability to walk or cycle to and around various Doha metro stations reduces transport mode choices for citizens, residents, and visitors alike while unintentionally undercutting the potential socioeconomic and cultural benefits of constructing the new Doha Metro in the near- and long term. Many factors contribute to people’s decisions for using public rail transit to move from one point to another in an urban network. However, the lack of a cohesive and integrated relationship between the built environment and the transport system is one of the major factors. It is fundamental for architects, urban designers, town planners, and policymakers to understand the design and planning factors that promote and deter pedestrian behavior in the urban environment. The research in this paper reviews the current state of our knowledge in the field, compiling a comprehensive list of twenty-five (25) design criteria using best practices in the world (Jacobs, 1961; Hess et al., 1999; Dijkstra & Timmermans, 2002; Clifton et al., 2007; Ewing & Handy, 2009; Kurose et al., 2009; Berrigan et al., 2010; Giles-Corti et al., 2011; Ozbil et al., 2011; Zhu & Timmermans, 2011; Speck, 2012, Gehl, 2013 and 2014; Guo & Loo, 2013; Montgomery 2013; Alfonzo et al., 2014; Kim et al., 2014; Hass-Klau, 2015; Krogstad et al. 2015; Newman & Kenworthy, 2015, Arup, 2016; Sun et al., 2017; Salaheldin, 2021). The study then focuses on eleven (11) of these criteria to investigate built environment factors on walkability at three different Doha Metro stations – Al Ziziyah, Hamad Hospital, and West Bay – representing a variety of neighborhoods in the city: a suburban mixed-use area near Villaggio Mall, an urban medical-office center associated with Hamad Medical City, and a predominantly high-rise business district area in West Bay, respectively. The criteria include sidewalks availability and continuity, street hierarchy/character, functional mix, building heights, block sizes, street/segment length, connectedness, permeability, pedestrian network, and voids. However, this analysis becomes greatly simplified since the last five criteria are primarily a function of the sixth. e.g., block sizes, which emphasizes morphological analysis in the study (Hillier, 1996; Major, 2015 and 2018). The paper also focuses this research on the pedestrian shed radius of 250 meters (m) from the station’s entrances due to the harsh, hot climatic conditions in Doha during most of the year. The paper concludes that there are significant problems for walkability in all three neighborhoods. Effectively resolving these issues in the Al Ziziyah and West Bay areas will require implementing structural development and planning solutions over the long term (10-20 years). In contrast, the issues in the Hamad Hospital area offer more opportunities for short-term design refinements and enhancements to promote walkability.

In the middle of the 20th century European Cities have undergone a massive conversion to promote the private personalized motor transport system over all other means of reaching from one point to another. Whilst the intentions were good, mainly to reach each point of the city in a minimum time, this conversion resulted in a huge number of problems in urban areas which at the end jeopardized the original goal. In the last quarter of the 20th century a re-thinking has commenced in Europe, undoing a lot of those changes with specific emphasis on promoting public transport to achieve sustainable urban dwellings. In the Middle Eastern fast-growing cities there is an opportunity to apply the lessons-learned in the physical planning and development of the urban areas. However, a mere adaption of the way Europe is now converting their cities, would be a much too simplistic approach and may not be completely applicable for cities in the Middle-East. The adaption of European practices of transport system developments to Middle-Eastern cities shall take into account the climate, culture, social fabric of the population, economic factors, etc. in order to develop sustainable dwellings. The ultimate goal must be, that residents enjoy living, working, shopping in their city with short and seamless journey times from one point to the other with an integrated transport system. With the challenges of climate change, in Middle-Eastern cities the subject of harnessing the strengths of different transport solutions is getting even more complex to add any other achievement target. The paper first outlines the different goals that shall be achieved. Those goals will be evaluated and sharpened considering the regional context. In the next step the paper compares the strengths and weaknesses of the different transportation solutions in achieving those goals. As a conclusion it discusses smart ways of combining several, if not all, of them to maximize the achievement of the established goals.