Multimodal Transport For Smart Mobility in Emerging Cities: Case of Doha

A mobility focused smart city ensures an urban place that is shaped with latest innovations accentuating the overall well-being of its citizens. One of the significant aspects for assessing the Smart Mobility in an emerging city is the assessment of its Multimodal Transport Network. Integrating diverse transportation modes into a single route for seamless mobility is necessary to revolutionize the cities into smart cities. Qatar is currently leading the pace of smart growth by investing profoundly in smart cities infrastructure and evolving mobility technologies. This paper explores: (i) the progress of the smart mobility development and initiatives in Qatar, (ii) the Multimodal transport system in one of its smart cities, Msheireb Downtown Doha (MDD) and (iii) how the Multimodal transport system could be influenced in the light of emerging transportation technologies like Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). The study investigates in-depth the transport network of the city and makes an exploratory analysis. The qualitative approach is used in doing secondary research and performing on-site observations. On-site observations for the smart mobility assessment involved assessing indicators like walkability, cycling, inter-modality and transportation hubs and the overall public transport system in MDD. It is concluded that there is still room for improvement when it comes to developing the intermodal network for the mobility enhancement and deployment of AVs. The outcome of the study is the investigation of the smart mobility initiatives adopted in Qatar, the assessment of multimodal transport pattern of MDD, and a bus route proposal in the era of AVs.