A Technical and Social Investigation of Walkability, Accessibility and Adoption of Mass Transit in Harsh Climates

The high income and rapid population growth enabled the spread of cars, creating a culture of urban transportation planning that prioritizes cars over pedestrians in Qatar. The dependence on cars reduced the portion of walking and use of public transportation, creating a slew of challenges to public health, environment, and the economy. This thesis investigates the facilitators and barriers to accepting a sustainable transportation mixture with a larger share of active and public transportation. The technical aspect of the study analyzes the walkability of the street networks around all 37 stations of Doha Metro, and using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) visualizes the isochrones of the walkable areas for 4, 6,8,10, and 12 minutes as well as the bikeable area within 5 minutes. In more detail, the study then investigates the urban environments surrounding four stations, that are representative of the diversity of Doha’s urban development, using field inspections, and temperature and humidity measurements. This systematic evaluation inspects the walkability characteristics of connectivity, livability, pavement quality, traffic safety, and thermal comfort. The social aspect of the study, which focuses on the public attitudes towards sustainable and active transportation, by surveying their mode preferences, trip purposes, and the frequencies of each. Results show an improved perception of the metro services since its opening, with up to 20% of the respondent to consider the metro as one of their main transportation modes, with the majority (78%) having rode the metro at least once. But the challenge remains to increase the metro trips per person, which is very close to once per month only, and replace more of the conventional car trips. The metro is viewed as a convenient mode to avoid traffic congestion when going to the malls or popular touristic attractions. Results show a weak correlation between metro use frequency and obesity (r- value = -0.215, p-value = 0.0221, at a 0.05 confidence level), and daily steps count (r value = 0.265, p-value=0.0062, significant at 0.01 confidence level) which indicate the sustainable transportation may positively influence the health in Qatar.