Roads Dis Connecting Cities and Neighbourhoods

Middle East
Centre
ROADS (DIS)CONNECTING
CITIES AND NEIGHBOURHOODS
A SOCIO-SPATIAL STUDY OF ABU DHABI
Alexandra Gomes, Apostolos Kyriazis,

Peter Schwinger, Clémence Montagne
and Sepehr Zhand
LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series | 80 | December 2023

About the Middle East Centre
The Middle East Centre builds on LSE’s long

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a central hub for the wide range of research on
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The Middle East Centre aims to enhance un-

derstanding and develop rigorous research on
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tional relations of the region. The Centre pro-
motes both specialised knowledge and public
understanding of this crucial area and has out-
standing strengths in interdisciplinary research
and in regional expertise. As one of the world’s
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the social sciences. The Middle East Centre
harnesses this expertise to promote innovative
research and training on the region.
Middle East
Centre
Roads (Dis)connecting Cities and Neighbourhoods:

A Socio-Spatial Study of Abu Dhabi
Alexandra Gomes, Apostolos Kyriazis, Peter Schwinger,
Clémence Montagne and Sepehr Zhand
LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series | 80

December 2023
About the Authors Abstract
Alexandra Gomes is Research Fellow Road infrastructure has played a crucial
at LSE Cities and Tutor at UCL Bart- role in the rapid urban development of
lett School of Planning. She has vast Gulf cities. However, it has frequently taken
experience in leading and coordinating precedence over urban planning leading to
international research on urbanisation high car dependency. In Abu Dhabi, roads
and socio-spatial inequalities. connect spaces afar while creating barriers
between neighbourhoods.
Apostolos Kyriazis is Associate Professor
of Architecture at Abu Dhabi University, This paper employs a mixed-method
with 23 years of experience, three par- approach, combining observations,
ticipations at the Venice Biennale, two interviews and spatial analysis at both
books and several awards in architecture metropolitan and neighbourhood levels
and photography. to investigate the relationship between
technical road design, space and people.
Peter Schwinger is a transport eco- It highlights the significance of historical
nomics, strategy and planning expert. context, governance, planning and design
He lived and worked in Abu Dhabi for tools in road design. The study aims to
several years planning the city’s public provide evidence-based analysis for poli-
transport system. cymakers and institutions, urging them to
Clémence Montagne is Director of the challenge car-centric development and pri-
Care design Lab at L’Ecole de design oritise people and the environment in road
Nantes Atlantique. She holds a PhD in design. It concludes with reflections and
urban planning on public transport and policy recommendations to rethink road
city making in the UAE (Sorbonne, 2016). design and planning strategies, acknowl-
Her research focuses on design and edging their impact on Abu Dhabi’s urban
social innovation. dynamics and local communities.
Sepehr Zhand is Research Fellow at

UCL’s Space Syntax Lab and works at
the intersection of spatial data science
and development planning. He was
formerly a research associate at the Uni-
versity of Tehran and lectured at UCL
and Cardiff University.
The authors extend their gratitude to the members
of the research team: Branwen Spector (LSE), Nour
Al Ali, Juman Fera Sebai, Haya Omar Al-Baiti
and Hiba Hafeez Syed (ADU); Jack McGinn (LSE
Middle East Centre) and to the exceptional support
by Kendall Livingston (LSE Middle East Centre).
The authors are also thankful for the institu-
tional backing from Prof Michael Mason and
Robert Lowe at the LSE Middle East Centre; Dr
Philipp Rode at LSE Cities; Dr Magdy Ibrahim, Dr
Osama Mohamed, Dr Philip Hamill, Prof Thomas
Glas-Hochstettler, and Prof Waqar Ahmad at Abu
Dhabi University. Gratitude is extended to cycling-
tracks.ae and DMT for providing valuable data,
as well as to all the interviewees who generously
shared their time and knowledge. A final thanks to
Atelier Works for their image design work.
6 Roads (Dis)connecting Cities and Neighbourhoods
Introduction
This paper stems from a two-year academic collaborative research project between LSE
Cities and Abu Dhabi University (ADU) researchers, supported and managed by the LSE
Middle East Centre and funded by the Emirates Foundation. The aim of this project is to
explore the socio-spatial impact of Abu Dhabi’s car-centric development and to create
solid evidence-based research that can influence policymaking towards a more sustain-
able urban development, informing national and international policy debates and place
Abu Dhabi and the Gulf on the research agenda.
Road infrastructure has supported the city’s rapid urban development, but in the process
created barriers, imposed economic costs and promoted car dependency with high costs
at the city and local level.1 Land and oil availability, motorisation, land use zoning and
modernist urban development have led to a prioritisation of roads over urban planning.2
While these impacts are widely recognised by the literature on most Gulf cities, the rela-
tionship between the different factors and their spatial and social impacts within this
cultural and climatic context remain under-researched.
In a city of circa 1.8 million people – of which 84 percent are non-Emirati migrant workers
– Abu Dhabi’s land and oil resources have played a crucial role in its development as a
car-centric city as well as its distribution of wealth and urban form.3 However, this devel-
opment has also been impacted by such factors as extreme climate conditions, individual
perceptions (e.g. speed, safety and status), limited investment in public transport infra-
structure and policies that encourage the use of cars – subsidised petrol, favourable tax
policies and low interest rates.4
Abu Dhabi has seen a strong growth in vehicle registration over the last decade, except for
2019 mostly due to COVID-19 (see Figure 1). Although the level of road-congestion in 2021
was low (11 percent) when compared to 19% in Kuwait and 20% in Dubai, Abu Dhabi still
has one of the highest CO2 emissions per capita, with cars being the dominant polluters
within the transport sector.5 Annually, only 76% of readings from pollutant measuring sta-
tions are within national air quality limits.6
1
See the project page ‘Roads (Dis)connecting Cities and Neighbourhoods: A Socio-spatial Study of
Abu Dhabi’ and the final outputs (exhibition and seminar). Available at: https://www.lse.ac.uk/middlee-
astcentre/research/collaboration-programme/2021-22/alexandra-gomes (accessed 15 December 2023).
2
Philipp Rode et al., ‘Resource Urbanisms: Asia’s Divergent City Models of Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Singa-
pore and Hong Kong’, LSE Cities. Available at: https://www.lse.ac.uk/cities/publications/research-reports/
Resource-Urbanisms (accessed 4 July 2022).
3
‘SCAD Statistical Yearbook 2012–2020’, Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi (2020). Available at: https://www.
sti.gov.ae/web/guest/related-publications?p_r_p_categoryId=206 (accessed 6 July 2022); Rode et al.,
‘Resource Urbanisms’.
4
Meldone Ochieng and Mohamed Jama Mohamed, ‘The Implications of Automobile Dependency in
Abu Dhabi City’, 21st International Conference on Urban Transport and the Environment, WIT Transactions
on the Built Environment (València, Spain: WIT Press, 2015). Available at: https://trid.trb.org/view/1357561
(accessed 6 July 2022).
5
‘Abu Dhabi Traffic Report 2021’, TomTom Traffic Index (2021). Available at: https://www.tomtom.com/
en_gb/traffic-index/abu-dhabi-traffic/ (accessed 6 July 2022).
6
‘Abu Dhabi Air Emission Inventory 2018’, Abu Dhabi: Environment Agency (2018). Available at: https://
www.ead.gov.ae/Knowledge-Hub/Resources-Materials (accessed 6 July 2022).
Alexandra Gomes, Apostolos Kyriazis, Peter Schwinger, Clémence Montagne and Sepehr Zhand 7
Figure 1: Population and Road Related Indicators7
164
14
84%
19,895
115
742 9
82% 621
7,378
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Population density (pers/km) % non-citizen population Road traffic mortality rate

Vehicles registration Total roads length (km)
Car dependency is strongly reflected in the economy with 98% of goods transported by
road and 88% of all non-commercial journeys made by car or bus.8 Of that 88%, however,
public transport contributed to only 4.8% of the total number of trips in 2021.9 Taxis also
play a dominant role in road transport, adding a significant number of vehicles on the road.
Road length has been constantly growing and the minimum parking requirement is one of
the highest in the world further encouraging the use of automobiles.10 This dependence
has cost Abu Dhabi approximately $20 billion in road investment in a three-year period
(before COVID), such as road widening, bridges and interchanges to manage congestion.11
7
‘SCAD Statistical Yearbook 2012_2020’; Statistics Centre. Available at: https://www.sti.gov.ae/web/guest/
key-statistical-indicators?p_r_p_categoryId=227 (accessed 6 July 2022).
8
Ochieng and Jama, ‘The Implications of Automobile Dependency in Abu Dhabi City’.
9
‘Abu Dhabi Urban Street Design Manual’, Department of Municipalities and Transport (2021). Available
at: https://addata.gov.ae/dataset/abu-dhabi-urban-street-design-manual (accessed 15 January 2023).
10
Oxford Business Group, ‘Continued Expansion: Infrastructure Investment Drives Sector Growth’,
UAE: Abu Dhabi | Construction (2014). Available at: https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/reports/uae-abu-
dhabi/2014-report/economy/continued-expansion-infrastructure-investment-drives-sector-growth
(accessed 25 August 2023); Apostolos Kyriazis et al., ‘Rethinking Streetscapes for Abu Dhabi: A Roundta-
ble on the City’s Past, Present and Future’, LSE Middle East Centre Blog (accessed 15 July 2022). Available
at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2022/07/15/rethinking-streetscapes-for-abu-dhabi-a-roundtable-on-the-
citys-past-present-and-future/ (accessed 2 November 2022).
11
Ochieng and Jama, ‘The Implications of Automobile Dependency in Abu Dhabi City’.
Figure 2: Road Construction in Abu Dhabi Region12
2,000 16,000
Abu Dhabi external roads length (km)
Abu Dhabi internal roads length (km)

1,000 10,000
0 2,000
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
External roads
5Lane x2 4Lane x2 3Lane x2 2Lane x2 1Lane x2 Internal roads
At the same time, in a period of climate emergency, vehicle ownership rates are very high
and ridership levels place Abu Dhabi together with Saudi Arabia in the top ranking of
emission rates in terms of metric ton (MT) CO2 equivalent per kilometre of road. In
Abu Dhabi, roads contribute to about 63 percent of the direct greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions in the transport sector, of which more than 98 percent is attributed to CO2
emissions produced by fuel combustion.13
Health related issues are another impact of motorisation. Though road traffic mortality
is lower than in other Middle East countries, it is still one of the world’s highest and in
2016 the World Health Organisation estimated that the estimate rate per 100,000 people,
represented 6.4 times the value of Singapore and 5.8 times the value of the UK.14 In total,
traffic accidents cost the UAE AED 14 billion, which in 2009 corresponded to 1 percent of
the city’s GDP.15 Another health related impact is the lack of physical activity car depen-
dency encourages. In 2000, a third of the UAE population was obese and over 40 percent
overweight.16 Recent studies mention 19 percent of the citizens having diabetes.17 Trying to
mitigate these issues, Abu Dhabi has been heavily investing in cycling infrastructure (see
section on the functional use of roads).
These dimensions and numbers are just the starting point to the analysis of a city that seems
to be supporting a continuous cycle of growth for roads and motorisation (see Figure 2).18
12
SCAD, ‘SCAD Statistical Yearbook 2012–2020’. Note: The length of the roads is multiplied by the
number of lanes. External roads are roads outside of settlements (urban areas).
13
Francisco D. B. Albuquerque et al., ‘Greenhouse Gas Emissions Associated with Road Transport Proj-
ects: Current Status, Benchmarking, and Assessment Tools’, Transportation Research Procedia 48 (2020),
pp. 2018–30.
14
WHO, ‘Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018’, Global Report (2018). Available at: https://www.who.
int/publications-detail-redirect/9789241565684 (accessed 1 November 2023).
15
Ochieng and Jama, ‘The Implications of Automobile Dependency in Abu Dhabi City’, p. 148.
16
Nabil Sulaiman et al., ‘Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in United Arab Emirates Expatriates: The
UAE National Diabetes and Lifestyle Study’, Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome 9/1 (accessed 2 November
2017), p. 88.
17
Anam Rizvi, ‘Special Report: Obesity Rate in the UAE Double the World Average’, The National (2015).
Available at: https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/health/special-report-obesity-rate-in-the-uae-dou-
ble-the-world-average-1.74056 (accessed 2 November 2022).
18
Rode et al., ‘Resource Urbanisms’.
Literature Review
Despite its emerging status as an ‘exemplar’ of a new Arab city in the Gulf region, Abu Dhabi
is dwarfed by Dubai in terms of scholarly attention. Several sources attempt to depict this
rapid transformation from a seasonal fishing post to a contemporary global hub, often
under an empirical and romanticised approach.19 Recently, a more critical gaze on the mod-
ernisation of Abu Dhabi has emerged, coinciding with an effort to document and preserve
samples of late Modernism. Abu Dhabi’s people are the topic of even fewer scholarly works
despite its special demographics, with limited literature describing the quotidian hardships
and the spatial manifestation of the migrant population.20 Instead, Abu Dhabi has been
mostly scrutinised for its infrastructural properties.21 Similarly, there is only a handful of
critiques on automobile dependency and its role as a social indicator and a facilitator of
post-modern imaginaries for both Dubai and Abu Dhabi.22 The overarching question of the
role of roads in (dis)connecting both space and people remains unexplored.
The significance of this literature gap is amplified once Abu Dhabi is viewed in reference
to other cities in the region. The work on other Gulf cities highlights the fact that Abu
Dhabi can be considered as a common vantage point for future studies and applications,
due to morphological clarity, to a ‘tabula rasa’ urbanism and to the special political, eco-
nomic and social urban growth characteristics.23
19
Abu Dhabi Municipality, ‘Abu Dhabi: Dana of the Gulf, Planning and Urban Development (Studies and
Research Section)’, Abu Dhabi Municipality & Town Planning Department, 2003; Mohamed Abduljalil
Al-Fahim, From Rags to Riches: The Story of Abu Dhabi (London: London Centre of Arab Studies, 1995).
20
See Khaled Alwadi, Lifescapes Beyond Bigness (London: Artifice, 2018); Yasser Elsheshtawy, Tempo-
rary Cities: Resisting Transience in Arabia, 1st ed. (Abingdon: Routledge, 2019); Apostolos Kyriazis et al.,
Abu Dhabi Public Spaces: Urban Encounters, Social Diversity and (In)formality (Abu Dhabi: Books Arabia,
2021); Florian Weidmann and Ashraf M Salama, Building Migrant Cities in the Gulf: Urban Transforma-
tion in the Middle East (London: I.B.Tauris, 2019); Deepak Unnikrishnan, Temporary People (New York:
Restless Books, 2017).
21
Rode et al., ‘Resource Urbanisms’; Martin Scoppa, Khawla Bawazir and Khaled Alawadi, ‘Walking the
Superblocks: Street Layout Efficiency and the Sikkak System in Abu Dhabi’, Sustainable Cities and Society
38 (2018), pp. 359–69.
22
For examples see Clémence Montagne, Urban Development and Urban Planning at Abu Dhabi and Dubai;
Politics, Actors and Mobility (Paris: Paris-Sorbonne University, 2016); Apostolos Kyriazis, Ahmed Almehairi
and Ibrhahim Seri, ‘The Morphology of Abu Dhabi’s Superblocks’, Athens Journal of Architecture 4 (2017),
pp. 373–94; Apostolos Kyriazis, Ayesha Zahid and Shafaq Qamer, ‘A Cultural Paradox and the Double Shift
of the Housing Typologies in the Arabic Gulf Area’, ARCC Conference Repository (ARCC, August 2019);
Ahmed Kanna (ed.), The Superlative City: Dubai and the Urban Condition in the Early Twenty-First Century,
Aga Khan Program of the Graduate School of Design (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013).
23
For examples see Pascal Menoret, Joyriding in Riyadh: Oil, Urbanism, and Road Revolt (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2014); Alawadi, Lifescapes Beyond Bigness; Alexandra Gomes, Asseel
Al-Ragam and Sharifa AlShalfan, ‘Reclaiming Public Space in Kuwait’s Residential Neighbourhoods: An
Applied Policy-Oriented Approach’, LSE Middle East Centre Kuwait Programme Paper Series 8, March
2021; Gustavo Linhares de Siqueira et al., ‘Where Omanis Walk? A Comparison Between the Perception
and the Morphology of the Built Environment in Different Neighbourhoods of Muscat’, in Mohamed
Elkaftangui (ed.), Architecture Media Politics Society (AMPS) Conference 13: Constructing an Urban Future:
The Sustainability and Resilience of Cities (Abu Dhabi: AMPS, 2018), pp. 49–63; Roberto Fabbri and Sultan
Sooud Al-Qassemi (eds), Urban Modernity in the Contemporary Gulf: Obsolescence and Opportunities
(Abingdon: Routledge, 2021); Łukasz Stanek, Architecture in Global Socialism: Eastern Europe, West Africa,
and the Middle East in the Cold War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020).
Research Approach and Methodology

This investigation uses a mixed-methods approach, incorporating a space syntax method
of analysis based on a road network model and running it through DepthmapX and SSL
toolkit in QGIS and CAD software to explore spatial patterns at different scales. Seven
semi-structured interviews, three specialised workshops, fieldwork and observation
(from March to June 2022) as well as photography were used to investigate individual
perceptions and social impact. Technical and documentary review was undertaken to
understand the effects of planning and policy guidelines.
The first section uses historical, technical, and institutional knowledge and documenta-
tion to provide an overview of how the road network historically developed including how
governance influenced road policy and design. The second section explores the func-
tional use of roads and undertakes a larger-scale analysis to provide insight into what is
happening at the local scale.24 At the metropolitan level, space syntax analysis is used to
assess the role of the road network through a spatial network model for centrality mea-
sures – closeness centrality and betweenness centrality at various radii from global to
local.25 For the third section ten case study areas are examined, selected for their dis-
tinct social and architectural properties and the diverse relation between urban form and
street layout, public space conditions and location. A series of thematic maps illustrates
main urban morphology properties and a surface analysis. The fourth section explores
the impact on individual and collective behaviour shaped by the existing road network,
explored mostly through literature review, observations and the results of the semi-struc-
tured interviews. This investigation includes different dimensions and interrelations to
reflect some of the main causes and consequences of car-centric development in Abu
Dhabi (see Figure 3). This section examines the type of roads and their technical design
(see section on technical design) including their characteristics, location, the impact on
space and its functional use – considering the metropolitan and neighbourhood scale (see
section on the functional use of roads) and the impact on people and their sociability (see
section on the social use of roads). The final section looks at policy and planning options
to lessen negative impacts of roads before the conclusion of the investigation.
In this paper, ‘disconnections’ encompass both spatial and social barriers in Abu Dhabi’s
road network, including road space, right-of-way, safety-related physical barriers and parking
spaces. While examining historical, governance, and policy influences on the current
network, we aim to tackle challenges affecting pedestrian, cyclist and driver mobility.
24
In this study, road and street are used interchangeably to refer to dedicated surfaces on the ground
for vehicles, people or animals to travel on. However, a street is usually urban and designed for a mix of
users and a road is mostly suburban and mostly designed for cars. In Abu Dhabi that distinction is not
always clear.
25
Closeness centrality, or integration, in space-syntax literature refer to to-movement and correlates
with areas more likely to have active interactions. In betweenness centrality, or choice, refers to
through-movement, highlighting the roads most likely to be used within a street network. Gert Sabi-
dussi, ‘The Centrality Index of a Graph’, Psychometrika 31/4 (1966), pp. 581–603; Linton C. Freeman, ‘A Set
of Measures of Centrality Based on Betweenness’, Sociometry 40/1 (1977), pp. 35–41.
Figure 3: Framework of Analysis and Inter-Relationships Between Elements
Downtown
Road location
Suburbs
Public transport and active modes
Vehicles Gated communities

Cars
Accessibility
Right of way
Movement
Parking space
Functional Urban roads Streetscape

Movement
Technical design
Leisure Roads (dis)Connecting Overcapacity
Day Crossings
Sociability
Night Right of way
Social use Road characteristics
Type of roads
Citizenship
Over-supply
Highways
Crossings
City level spaces
Petrol stations
Functional uses
Local level spaces Governance, road planning and design instruments
Understanding Roads
This section examines the history and policy framework of Abu Dhabi’s road network,
including the organisational properties and relationship with urban agglomerations. It also
focuses on selected neighbourhood areas, highlighting the dynamic thresholds between
the street network, urban morphology and public space.
The History of Roads and Urban Development

Abu Dhabi started as a seasonal seafront settlement, even after its first oil concessions
in the 1950s. The power shift under Sheikh Zayed in 1962 led to the modernisation of the
city that, having eradicated its pre-oil core, relied on urban planning to introduce a new
national identity. Utilising a practical grid layout, the master plans of the consultancy firm
Arabicon and City Planning Directors Katsuhiko Takahashi and Abdelrahman Makhlouf
– with a clear influence from Konstantinos Doxiadis’ work in the region– were adopted.26
Their plans also fit the political priorities for equity, uniformity and flexibility to rapidly
channel the anticipated oil revenues into the production of urban space.27
26
Namely Doxiadis’ Master Plan revisions of Baghdad in 1958 and Riyadh in 1968.
27
Kyriazis, Almehairi and Seri, ‘The Morphology of Abu Dhabi’s Superblocks’.
By the early nineties, development started pushing out from a saturated Abu Dhabi island
to the mainland. The Atkins Comprehensive Plan of 1998 introduced the suburbia of
low-density, extreme zoning and sprawl.28 Through the Abu Dhabi 2030 Framework Plan,29
the city upgraded from a federal capital to a global hub in tourism, sports and culture
emphasising on leisure and ‘starchitecture’.30 Urbanisms of exclusion31 were created along
the seashore, while ethnically distinct suburbs kept expanding horizontally, dominated by
a pastiche of housing as a commodity and a social status indicator.32
The suburbs, with their subsidised Emirati neighbourhoods, currently represent the domi-
nant landscape of the city.33 Their rapid expansion and ‘leapfrog’ development have added
costs of regional integration and transport infrastructure needs.34 Sheikh Zayed’s initial
investment in roads is now a challenge for those who cannot or do not want to drive. The
suburbs’ infrastructures reflect the status of those who live there, with empty roads served
by wide pavements often occupied by cars, while the poorer neighbourhoods provide
little walkability for those who need it. These issues are often linked to planning and urban
design but should also be examined in terms of citizenship, income and social segregation.
Governance, Road Planning and Design Instruments

The city’s governance and management had a fundamental influence in prioritising road
infrastructure and street design. Prior to 2004, planning codes and manuals in Abu Dhabi
were either non-existent or had been quickly adapted from examples in the US. Road
design was predominately under the control of one institution, the Abu Dhabi Municipal-
ity. Following the demise of Sheikh Zayed in 2004, a construction boom led to the rise of
other players, urban development companies. These companies accommodated the fast-
paced planned growth and implementation of large-scale urban developments with road
design and streetscape, however, neither followed municipal guidelines nor coordinated
with each other.
In 2007, the newly founded Urban Planning Council (UPC) developed the Plan Abu Dhabi
2030 and its subsequent Urban Framework Plan. Based on land-use and population forecasts
of the UPC’s plan, the (also) newly established Department of Transport (DoT) developed
a Transportation Master Plan in 2009. While the overall strategy and transport planning was
28
Abu Dhabi Municipality, ‘Abu Dhabi’.
29
Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council, ‘Plan Abu Dhabi 2030: Urban Structure Framework Plan’, 2007.
Available at: https://faculty.uaeu.ac.ae/abintouq/GEO440_Spring2014/Capital-2030-en.pdf (accessed 17
November 2022).
30
Iconic architecture by architects that have reached a high level of popularity and fame.
31
Apostolos Kyriazis et al., ‘Behavioral Mapping of Abu Dhabi’s Public Spaces: Urban Research Photog-
raphy and Cultural Clashes’, Sophia Journal 4, Visual Changes of Space: Unveiling the Publicness of Urban
Space (2019), pp. 75–85.
32
Kyriazis, Qamer, and Zahid, ‘A Cultural Paradox and the Double Shift of the Housing Typologies in the
Arabic Gulf Area’, pp. 89–96.
33
34
Khaled Alawadi and Ouafa Benkraouda, ‘What Happened to Abu Dhabi’s Urbanism? The Question of
Regional Integration’, Journal of Urban Design 23/3 (2018), pp. 367–94.
streamlined now under the Plan 2030’s objectives, policies and strategies, on-the-ground
road and street design was not. UPC, DoT and the Municipality competed over the planning
strategies and manuals as well as the actual planning and implementation of streetscapes
and parking spaces. Most notably, the Urban Street Design Manual developed by the UPC
was – and is until today – inconsistent and competing with DoT’s engineering manuals,
transport impact study guidelines and parking strategies as well as some of the Municipali-
ty’s standards and guidelines. Such competition between government agencies is not unique
to the Gulf, and Abu Dhabi’s government has addressed these issues with several ministerial
reshuffles. The first reshuffle in 2015 merged the DoT and the Abu Dhabi Municipality under
one umbrella. The second attempt in 2017 reversed the 2015 action and instead merged the
UPC with the Municipality and split the DoT into a strategic planning and policy arm (DoT)
and a new operational arm – the Integrated Transport Planning Centre (ICT). Furthermore,
the Framework Plan 2030 has been withdrawn and is still under revision.
Despite these efforts, there are two governance issues, which are specific to Gulf countries.
Firstly, the relatively high turnover of expatriate staff leads to lower degree of continu-
ity in the planning process. This worsens the negative impact of governance failure as
described above. Secondly, the major growth of the urban landscape often occurs in times
of unbalanced planning regimes. Abu Dhabi, for example, has more than doubled in size
and tripled in population since 2000 leaving an astonishing footprint of underregulated
developments of roads.35 This uncertainty – with its constant restructuring of institutions
and staff, the power of private developers in shaping urban growth, and the often overlap-
ping and conflicting manuals and guidelines – has a strong impact on how priorities are
defined at both the city and local levels.36
Roads on the Metropolitan Scale

The metropolitan analysis uses space syntax to explore how the current configuration
of Abu Dhabi’s road network shapes centres of activity.37 The initial look at betweenness
centrality at the highest radius of movement (global radius, rn) shows that the city of Abu
Dhabi has a rigid grid of high-speed roads that are planned to facilitate movement and
development in the city. The roads most likely to be used in the city-wide scale are at the
intersections of Musaffah, Mohamed Bin Zayed City, Khalifa City and Al Maqta (Figure
4a). This analysis also shows that the network of highways divides the remaining city
fabric, suggesting that these neighbourhoods are isolated within the grid in a way that in
absence of a car, movement between neighbourhoods is difficult.
35
Rode et al., ‘Resource Urbanisms’, p. 32.
36
For a better understanding of the spatial changes see the project’s final event slides.
37
This analysis investigates how each road segment of the city is related to other segments, exploring
how the different roads facilitate movement and by effect enable activity. Highlighting the most used
routes in relation to the rest of the city, and where the most integrated parts of the city are, while illus-
trating how the city has evolved and responded to planning strategies and a growing population.
Furthermore, to explore cores of integration in the fabric of the city, a closeness centrality
analysis at different metric radii was implemented.38 This highlights that integration and
core of activity at the metropolitan level are on the main island (Figure 4c). The analy-
sis at a lower radius of movement, representing distances related to walking and cycling
(1200–2000m), shows that the city has developed local cores of activity that remain iso-
lated and constrained by the grid of highways – a typical scenario for a car-centric city
(Figure 4b and c). This supports the hypothesis that infrastructure of high-speed vehicular
movement facilitates activity and movement in the city but segregates and isolates the
organically developed cores of integration.
This conclusion is also supported by the distance analysis undertaken, using the same
road network and the block typology dataset from ‘Resource Urbanisms’ project which
compared Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Kuwait City.39 The bar chart (Figure 4d) shows
that the movement grid developed in a way that private planned villas are on average
4km further away from cores of activity compared to high-density, mixed-use and labour
camps.40 This also suggests that the road network has evolved in favour of those more
likely to drive, discouraging cycling and walking.
Figure 4: (a) Betweenness Centrality Analysis at Global Radius (b) Local Cores of
Integration (c) Global Integration Core (d) Distance Matrix Between Different Typol-
ogies and Cores of Integration and Activity in Different Radii of Analysis
Access routes
Choice R n
Low
High
0 10km
38
M. Serra and P. Pinho, ‘Tackling the Structure of Very Large Spatial Systems - Space Syntax and the
Analysis of Metropolitan Form’, The Journal of Space Syntax 4/2 (2013), pp. 179–96.
39
40
These labour camps are municipality approved worker accommodation (construction workers) that provides
basic facilities to residents. They are often overcrowded and located in the outskirts of the metropolitan area.
Integration core
Integration R 2km
Low
High
0 10km
Integration core
Integration R 10km
Low
High
0 10km
Average distance to different levels of accessibility centres per block typology
25,000
20,000
Average distance to activity centre (m)
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
l
ts
s
ps
e
ity
l
ria
ia
lla
us
lla
en
m
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d
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-re
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800m 1,200m 5,000m 10,000m
Roads on the Neighbourhood Scale

Ten 1km2 (at scale) areas of the city with distinct socio-demographic, urban morphol-
ogy and road layout characteristics were chosen for neighbourhood spatial analysis (see
Figure 5).41 The areas include neighbourhoods developed by the municipality and by
private developers, of higher and lower income housing, for nationals and mixed popula-
tions, and with high and low densities.
41
Such as built/empty plots, building heights and existing land uses.
Figure 5: Selection of Neighbourhood Spatial Analysis Cases
Thematic maps reveal patterns of relations between the road networks and the main
physical characteristics of their surroundings. Quantitative data on population, densities,
and road and parking surfaces was collected on each 100Ha of selected area allowing for
an investigation of the local spatial impact of the road infrastructure and how that relates
to urban form and the surface networks.42
42
The quantitative analysis of land use and other surface distribution among the ten selected areas
– depicted in Figures 9 and 10 – was conducted using simplified (CAD) projections, in which minor
superimpositions of cantilevered buildings over the waterfront or public space and of unclear
boundaries between formal and informal parking were not able to be displayed without affecting the
statistical outcomes.
Figure 6: Detailed Layered Analysis for Each of the Ten Selected Areas43
43
Explore photography of these areas in the Abu Dhabi (Dis)connected exhibition website. Available at:
https://abu-dhabi-disconnected.squarespace.com/ (accessed 19 December 2023).
This analysis shows a reasonable connection between low population density and high
percentages of empty and residual space. It also suggests a link between the percentage
of unbuilt plots and the development phase of each urban area (see Figure 6). High pop-
ulation density is more directly associated with high percentages of both road and car
parking surfaces. Since car parking surfaces include both formal parking zones and infor-
mal solutions (sidewalks, private plots), a ratio of parking to road surface reveals a strong
connection of informal parking patterns to high-density areas.
Figure 7: Land Use Ratios and Population Density for All Selected Areas
60% 600
50% 500
Population density (pers/ha)

40% 400
30% 300
Other indicators
20% 200
10% 100
0% 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Selected sites
Road surface Residual space Parking surface All building uses Population density (pers/ha)
To understand the impact of the road network on movement flows in the ten selected
areas, the Direct Route Index (DRI) values for pedestrians and vehicles were calculated
using two locations per area, on different sides of a separating highway or collector (see
Figure 8).44 The analysis shows that (1) Saadiyat, (5) Al Qana and (7) ADU are 1.5 times
higher than the maximum DRIs for a well-designed area, pointing to a dysfunctional urban
form. In fact, in all ten areas, the driving DRIs are higher than the walking values and
exceed the desirable driving DRI limit (1.5). This indicates an overall problematic road
layout at this scale and a dysfunctional road network despite being designed for cars.
A relationship between the highest DRIs (in both walking and driving) and low population
densities can also be observed. It illustrates how low-density areas are even less walkable
and locked to car use. Finally, the calculation of DRI values provides an insight to how
types of roads connect. Good connectivity is observed in the four denser areas, namely (2)
Reem Island, (3) Tourist Club, (8) Shabiya and (10) Al Reef. This is partially due to the per-
meability of the sikka (narrow alley between buildings) system and to shorter distances
between traffic lights that provide U-turns or left turns.45
44
Direct Route Index (DRI) compares direct line distances on a map with true, walking or driving ones.
It was introduced by the Abu Dhabi Urban Street Design Manual. Department of Municipalities and
Transport, ‘Abu Dhabi Urban Street Design Manual’, Appendix B, page 1 (p.174). Available at: https://vtpi.
org/Abu_Daubi_Street_Design_Manual.pdf (accessed 20 September 2023)
45
Scoppa, Bawazir and Alawadi, ‘Walking the Superblocks’, pp. 359–69.
Figure 8: DRI Values and Population Density for All Areas

12 600
10 500
Population density (pers/ha)

8 400
6 300
Direct Route Index
4 200
Less practical urban form
2 100
Less practical urban form
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Selected sites
DRI Walk DRI Drive Population density (pers/ha)
Abu Dhabi’s growth can be characterised by the emphasis and prioritisation of vehicular
movement through an iron grid road network in the main island and a system of urban
highways in the mainland. While there have been cases of governance inconsistencies on
the design and management of the road network, it displays levels of connectivity and
efficiency. However, it has similarly contributed to the generation of disconnections
within the fabric, equally both at the metropolitan and the neighbourhood scale, where
design decisions have led to less cohesive urban forms.
Dimensions of Roads
Technical Design
With the modernisation of Abu Dhabi, early road infrastructure needed to be imple-
mented quickly. Road design prioritised car-safety and traffic flow. As a result, roads
mostly consisted of multi-lane main roads with an uninterrupted median, no left-turns
and a right-in–right-out configuration. Roundabouts provided the only opportunity to
turn left (at the main junctions) or to take a U-turn. This layout feature still shapes Abu
Dhabi’s roadscape, affecting car movement and distancing spaces.
Another common feature is the over-supply of capacity, both in terms of road as well as parking.
For roads, the issue exists on two levels. Firstly, there is a pronounced approach of road hier-
archy.46 For example, many roads in the suburbs, although carrying little traffic, are classified
as arterial or collector roads and often have three lanes per direction and medians. Secondly,
and arguably a more serious issue that applies to the entire city, is over-forecasting. Most road
and junction capacities are designed with future traffic demand in mind, using transportation
models translating future land-use and population data into required peak load road capacity.
While population forecasts have reduced over the last decade, the road network – as it exists
today – has largely been designed based on earlier, more optimistic growth scenarios.
46
Road hierarchy is defined in various guidelines and manuals. For more information on guidelines see
the ‘Abu Dhabi Emirate Guideline of Infrastructure Services Standards’, 2017. Available at: https://www.
dmt.gov.ae/adm/-/media/Project/DMT/ADM/E-Library/Abu-Dhabi-Emirate-Guideline-for-Infrastruc-
ture-Services-Standards.pdf (accessed 2 November 2023).
Wide right of ways (ROW) are another factor – with widths ranging from 300m to 850m
for most highways such as the E11 highway between Shakhbout and Bani Yas. In some of
the cases, other networks, such as pipelines for natural gas and oil, use the ROWs, increas-
ing the impact of the obstacle. Wide ROWs also apply to most urban arteries both in the
Abu Dhabi island and the suburbs adding more barriers to mobility.
In the central business district (CBD), relatively few main roads carry relatively high
volumes of traffic because of the superblock structure.47 Roundabouts were gradually
replaced by signalled junctions and main roads were constantly widened and comple-
mented by wide strips of service roads and parking. This unique downtown streetscape
severely affects block-to-block walkability and accessibility. As main roads carry high
loads of traffic and have fences installed on the median, pedestrians are forced to use
uninviting, mid-block underground crossings (wherever they exist) or walk to one of the
four signalled junctions at each corner of a superblock. Besides diminishing connectivity
within the high-density CBD, the barrier effect of main roads has a negative impact on the
accessibility of public transport.
Surface parking and non-continuous sidewalks are another barrier for pedestrians within
the CBD. Over 90 percent of the non-built-up spaces within the blocks are dedicated
to parking and access roads, leaving little space for pedestrian paths or recreational
areas. Sidewalks often surround singular building plots within their precincts and do not
provide continuous paths throughout the block nor any ramps at locations where crossing
is necessary. Abu Dhabi also applies one of the highest minimum parking requirements
worldwide.48 Such requirements have led to an over-supply of parking spaces in most areas
of the city, especially the suburbs. Extensive parking areas break urban connectivity and
create spatial barriers for pedestrians as well as impact land use and the visual landscape.
Figure 9: (a) Pedestrians Refuge Space; (b) Over-Supply of Road Capacity
Photo by Apostolos Kyriazis (a) and Alexandra Gomes (b)
47
The distinct urban blocks of Abu Dhabi with a 700m side in average with an internal road layout that
discourages cross-block traffic.
48
An urban development company or a private entity has to provide a certain amount of parking for
each Gross Floor Area (GFA) it builds and is dependent on the use of the development (e.g. office, rec-
reation, retail or private apartments).
The Functional Use of Roads

The roads that shape Abu Dhabi’s urban development are part of Sheikh Zayed’s dream:
(…) he knew that it meant people can come together quicker, that you can supply a
community faster and more efficiently by that way, and (...) he wanted roads from the
outset but roads to be not complicated so that people can get around.49
However, this dream locked the city into a motorised path that became a hard reality to
change. The previous sections explore how the grid emerged from historical and gover-
nance dimensions and framed urban development. The next section will explore how this
development is now connecting and disconnecting spatial functions and people.
Connecting Spaces
Sheikh Zayed’s pragmatism combined with urban growth parameters and a highly moni-
tored road network have contributed to a widely acclaimed ‘easy-to-drive’ city. In lack of
competitive public transportation alternatives, road hierarchy and easy motorised acces-
sibility is key to achieving such a friendly driving profile. The spatial distribution of several
key points of interest (such as education institutions, hospitals and shopping malls) and
new private developments highlight the added value of car accessibility, as most of these
destinations are within a 1.5km distance from a highway.
On the mainland and the suburban islands of Saadiyat and Yas, most urban development
and land use is directly associated with the nearby presence of major highways. However,
within Abu Dhabi island, these are mostly scattered throughout the urban fabric, lying
along the modernist grid of watermelon superblocks and its properties of equity of access
and plot size.50 This dichotomy is chronological and strategical, as post-modern and neo-
liberal aspirations have been implemented since the 1991 Comprehensive Plan and the
2030 Framework Plan of 2007 with the proliferation of urban highways, suburban sprawl
and a shift to tertiary services and zones of exclusion.51
49
Alamira Reem Bani Hashim, Planning Abu Dhabi: An Urban History (New York: Routledge, 2019), p. 118.
50
‘Watermelon’ superblocks are the urban blocks of Abu Dhabi’s CBD that showcase a high-rise, mixed-
use building perimeter (peel) and a low-rise, single-use (usually housing) interior, a distinct urban
morphology. Kyriazis, Almehairi and Seri, ‘The Morphology of Abu Dhabi’s Superblocks’.
51
Bani Hashim, Planning Abu Dhabi: An Urban History, p. 155; Arab National Development Planning
Portal, ‘Plan Abu Dhabi 2030: Urban Structure Framework Plan’, United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA), 2007. Available at: https://andp.unescwa.org/plans/1274
(accessed 17 November 2022 ); Apostolos Kyriazis and Myrsini Apostolaki, ‘The Abu Dhabi Waterfront;
Evolution, Land Use Dynamics and the Question of the “Open City”’, in Mohamed Elkaftangui (ed.),
Architecture Media Politics Society (AMPS) Conference 13: Constructing an Urban Future: The Sustainability
and Resilience of Cities (Abu Dhabi: AMPS, 2018), pp. 49–63.
Figure 10 : Points of Interest, Special Residential Areas, and Their Connectivity

Correlated to Building Heights
1
M
M
M
M
2
3
4
10
9
6 7
1
Urban Analysis Selected Areas
Dedicated Bicycle Paths Schools
Gated Housing Communities Higher Education Institutions
Building Heights up to 12m Major Hospitals
Building Heights 12-100m Malls
Building Heights over 100m Major Public Space - Park
0m 4km
Bicycle pathways are the latest addition to the city’s transportation networks, with the
oldest lanes less than ten years old. Today, following wide media campaigns for healthy
lifestyles, the bicycle network has grown to a length of 312km (Figure 10) and all new
urban districts and suburbs (MBZ South, Riyadh and Zayed City) are expected to create
bicycle networks.52 However, the network seems dedicated more toward leisure than com-
muting and is still spatially disconnected.53 While dense urban areas still have zero to few
dedicated lanes, many low-density suburbs already enjoy compact and well-connected
networks. However, most dedicated bicycle lanes are interconnected through plot-access
service roads. This gesture, while posing possible safety risks, seems to blend the incom-
ing bicycle mode with the still-prevailing road network.
Connectivity improvements can be recorded at the neighbourhood scale. In the 1980s and
90s, the city struggled with traffic and parking congestion issues that were concentrated in
the undeveloped spaces between buildings within the watermelon superblocks. The DoT
52
Also including a 33km network at the undeveloped island of Hudariyat.
53
Patrick Ryan, ‘Abu Dhabi Sets Its Sights on a Cycling Revolution’, The National, 2022. Available at:
https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/transport/2022/07/31/abu-dhabi-sets-its-sights-on-a-cycling-
revolution/ (accessed 25 August 2023 ); Panna Munyal, ‘53 Kilometres of New Cycling and Running
Tracks in Abu Dhabi Are Almost Halfway Finished’, The National, 2020. Available at: https://www.
thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/wellbeing/53-kilometres-of-new-cycling-and-running-tracks-in-abu-
dhabi-are-almost-halfway-finished-1.1004872 (accessed 25 August 2023).
addressed the issue in 2009 with a project for parking areas’ design, policing and man-
agement called MAWAQiF.54 Today, parking areas cover almost a third of the Abu Dhabi
island. However, the design approach combined with the absence of urban regeneration
projects created ‘parking desertscapes’ within the superblocks, displacing public space
users.55 To address this issue and improve its touristic outlook, Abu Dhabi Municipality
initiated a wide implementation of streetscape improvements across the downtown areas,
with an emphasis on pedestrian prioritisation through shaded traffic islands, sidewalk rec-
lamation and ‘acupuncture’ public space activation with inclusive urban furniture.56
Finally, Abu Dhabi’s urban form provides some interstitial spaces that are used as spaces
to walk, such as the sikka. Due to their nature, width and shade, they lack motorised traffic
and provide permeability, physical conditions and safety for pedestrians to walk through.
Disconnecting Spaces
This section sheds light on the elements of disconnection, highlighting the difference
between streetscape and roadscape and underline the negative impact of the technical
properties of roads.
The superblock grid (see section on technical design) facilitated a major scale transition
from the organic pre-oil settlement to the 1991 Atkins Comprehensive Plan that stream-
lined growth along the four intercity highways to Dubai, Sweihan, Al Ain and Al Gharbia.
The spaces in between these urban areas became testbeds for neighbourhood design.
The combination of infrastructure growth, ethnically segregated sprawl, strict zoning and
low-density urban fabric in Emirati housing areas led to a predominantly road-centred
urban form.
Despite having been designed on a ‘tabula rasa’, urban highways disrupt the urban con-
tinuous and prevent transverse movement.57 This applies to both city-to-waterfront
connections58 and neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood disruptions both for walking and
driving – a fact that is evident through the high DRI metrics for the focus areas 5 (Al Qana)
and 7 (ADU)59 discussed in section on the social use of roads.
54
Nada Al Taher, ‘Background on Mawaqif ’, Gulf News, 2014. Available at: https://gulfnews.com/uae/
transport/background-on-mawaqif-1.1401180 (accessed 14 November 2022 ).
55
Kyriazis et al., ‘Behavioral Mapping of Abu Dhabi’s Public Spaces’, p. 82. For other visual references
see the Abu Dhabi exhibition website.
56
Urban acupuncture is a term coined by Manuel de Solà-Morales in 1999 and refers to focused, small-
scale interventions of public space and building regeneration and (whenever possible) community
involvement.
57
‘Tabula rasa’ is a vision of renewal that ignores the existing urban structure. See also Elsheshtawy,
‘Informal Encounters’, p. 92.
58
The two highways running on the two longitudinal waterfronts of the Abu Dhabi island (the Khaleej
Al Arabi Road and the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Road – also known as Salam Street). Both linear parks
were redesigned to accommodate one-lane widening of the highways, but vehicles remain the primary
means with minimum options for pedestrians. There are only two crossing points for pedestrians for
9km of waterfront.
59
In area 7, a pedestrian bridge (the only one for 17km) was positioned in front of Abu Dhabi University
without connecting to any pedestrian networks on either side. In area 5, a new multi-use, leisure devel-
opment (Al Qana) was constructed, bridging a water channel on a privatised public space. However, the
While highways create a direct impact in connecting and disconnecting areas of the city,
the impact of urban arteries and local roads create an indirect impact, mostly relating to
the wide right of ways (ROW), parking and plot access, lack of investment in streetscape,
land thresholds and over-supply of capacity. While downtown morphologies scale down
the ROWs, the suburbs leave the corridors, creating barriers for pedestrians to cross and
increase the city’s asphalt-generated heat.60 Overprovision of wide ROWs originated from
the technical inability of local authorities to integrate utility corridors.61
In some cases, ROWs are filled with service roads for parking and plot access, significantly
reducing pedestrian space and increasing risk of accidents. This mostly applies to residen-
tial suburbs as the once single-building land plots were subdivided into rentals, causing
an influx in automobiles that exceeds the maximum design capacities and forces informal
parking solutions.62 Furthermore, many of the one-direction lanes are poorly designed,
adding unnecessary distances to routes.63
An equally important factor of disconnection is the streetscapes in terms of design options

and implemented quality. Many areas, mostly suburban, still lack formal streetscaping. The
lack of universal design (e.g. ramps and signage), discontinuous corridors for pedestrians and
bicycles, narrow pedestrian bays on traffic light medians, lack of resting places and shade,
materials that are dangerous to walk on and inaccessible bus stations are some of the most
common findings across the city. All are products of a design approach prioritising cars over
pedestrians. Notably, less affluent urban areas still lack streetscaping (Musaffah, Shabiya,
Shakhbout and Baniyas) in comparison to wealthier areas (Saadiyat, Yas and Raha Beach).
Finally, disconnections occur due to street design inconsistencies that usually take place
along neighbourhood boundaries. The most common cases are gated communities like
Saadiyat. Within these communities, the streetscape is often overdesigned. However, the
design approach, materiality and even design principles may be completely different just
outside their gates. The limited number of access points into these communities and the
presence of non-porous landscaping (walls or dense greenery) entails a lack of pedestrian
accessibility. It deteriorates both walking and driving DRIs and divides urban space, pro-
moting isolated islands of social and ethnical segregation.64 The application of different
design guidelines within a few meters of space – inside and outside of gated communities
– is indicative of the presence of distinctly separate governance systems, both in terms of
the principles and manuals applied as well as the approval processes. This lack of provi-
sion for transitional areas and of control highlights one of the major shortcomings of the
otherwise detailed design manuals for Abu Dhabi.
obstacle of the adjacent highway has proven itself stronger than the water channel. Access from/to the
opposing ‘Officers’ City’ development and the bus stations on the highway are not safe as pedestrians
must walk on narrow sidewalks along the road underpasses.
60
This difference is exemplified when comparing area 3 (Tourist Club) against areas 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9
(Khalidya, Al Qana, Mezyad Mall, ADU and Al Shamkha respectively). Especially for areas 7 and 9, resid-
ual space exceeds 50 percent of the total (see section 3.4)
61
Until very recently, the smaller ROW set for local roads on any Emirati National Housing Project set
by the (former) UPC and the DOT was 18m. Only the latest master plans were able to decrease this to a
12m (partially showing on area 7 – ADU).
62
See for example areas 6, 7 and 9.
63
Such as the driving DRI for area 6 – Mezyad Mall.
64
Kanna, The Superlative City.
The Social Use of Roads

The previous sections demonstrate from a technical and functional perspective how
roads in Abu Dhabi provide connectivity but equally form barriers to movements. This
section explores the social dimension of road use and how roads create both connectivity
and barriers for people. Arguing that the city’s planning system, focused on zoning and
iconic buildings along with its efficient road network, lacks care for a diverse population.
Emphasising people’s movement, temporality and liveliness is fundamental to improve
the city’s liveability and sense of place.
Connecting People
In Abu Dhabi, the dominance of roads transformed from merely a tool for movement into
spaces for socialising, resting or even looking for work.
The suburban development of the city is reflected in the distances between neighbour-
hoods that are covered by an extended network of roads. While travelling along these
primary roads (highways, motorways), elements such as the petrol stations become not
only a space for drivers to stop for petrol, but also a place of socialisation due to its geo-
graphically central location on the road network along with the fact that these are food
and drink areas too.65 Similarly, new sociability pockets have emerged closer to low-den-
sity, detached house neighbourhoods. Vacant land on the sides of major crossroads is also
used as a parking space for foods trucks.66 Another example is the empty, unscaped ROWs
transforming into play and sports areas like badminton, football, volleyball and cricket.67
At the same time, as roads are the support infrastructure for daily life, they also have a
fundamental social function for those who work along them. Construction workers are
often seen on the side of the roads, under the shade – if existent – resting or waiting to be
picked up for work. Roads become transitional spaces that emerge as an opportunity for
those who need to be seen.
While during the day many residential streets are often empty or semi-empty, at night, with
more comfortable temperatures, residents come out into the streets to walk their dogs, go
for a stroll and talk on their phones. Public spaces awaken to a liveliness that often does
not exist during the day. The nocturnal landscapes are a fundamental topic when explor-
ing the role of streets in most cities of the Middle East.68 Though few surveys were done
65
An interviewee that had to attend weekend family functions and travel back and forth 400 km between
Abu Dhabi and Fujairah mentioned: ‘It was very common to meet groups of Nationals having lunches
in the petrol pumps restaurants and cafeterias. Sometimes as it happened, I recognized former high
school, university, or work colleagues’ (Interviewee M).
66
‘These spaces have occurred as surprising not only for their locations in the bare landscapes where the
first supermarket would be 10 to 20 km away but also they ended up being busy mostly after sundown’
(Interviewee R).
67
These commonly take place downtown or on street corners in low-income, working-class areas or
roadsides. See Yasser Elsheshtawy, ‘Urban Enclaves and Transient Cosmopolitanism: Scenes from Abu
Dhabi and Dubia’, City 24/5–6 (2020), pp. 805–17. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2020.18
43279 (accessed 25 August 2023 ); Khaled Alawadi, Shefa Hashem and Praveen Maghelal, ‘Perspectives
on Everyday Urbanism: Evidence from an Abu Dhabi Neighborhood’, Journal of Planning Education and
Research 3 (2022), pp. 1–24.
68
‘After Dark: Nocturnal Landscapes and Public Spaces in the Arabian Peninsula, Panel I’, Harvard Grad-
in the suburbs to demonstrate these observations, studies undertaken on the CBD show
that in contrast with the daytime and peak hours, pedestrian movement increases with
families walking with children in the late afternoon.69 After sunset, although streets might
see a reduction of people, the perimeters remain very active. Those studies also observe
that the most common times for walking were from 6pm to 9am and that destinations
only 15 minutes away are considered too difficult to walk in the summer temperatures – a
distance that in many other cities of the world is not a challenge.70 If, during the summer,
working times and climate conditions are important dimensions constraining walkability,
the poor walking infrastructure including lack of shade, wide roads and road barriers are
permanent challenges to walkability.
In contrast with the wider roads supporting vehicular movement, the sikka (see section on
functional use of roads), emerges as an extension of the home, becoming spaces for res-
idents to stay and socialise. These semi-private spaces are some of the few places where
objects such as chairs, sofas, fake grass or even children’s toys are found and demonstrate
the existing or potential liveability of a neighbourhood.71 They are the most democratic
of the urban spaces, as they exist in many of the neighbourhoods and provide for the
many demographics in the city, whether Emirati or non-Emirati. The role of the sikka as a
pedestrian route is vital in Abu Dhabi’s street network, providing high levels of pedestrian
connectivity and access to basic neighbourhood services. The presence of a sikka and other
opportunity areas (e.g. empty plots) offer a localised solution for mobility and social-
isation in Abu Dhabi, with a more limited impact on the metropolitan scale. However,
their role in both connecting the city and as public space is not evident in the literature.
These left-over, in-between spaces are often forgotten in street network analysis and lack
investment as pathways.72 However, this invisibility also allows them the informality and
seclusion that promotes higher levels of informal use as spaces to stay and socialise.73
The comparison between residential neighbourhoods and gated communities and the
impact on residents’ life is highlighted in some of the interviews undertaken during this
project.74 When compared to traditional Emirati neighbourhoods, gated communities
bring more life to the streets and a sense of community through their higher densities, nar-
rower roads, smaller houses, green areas and proximity between the buildings.75 However,
uate School of Design (2017). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpvT-cEfQSA (accessed 4

July 2022).
69
Kyriazis et al., ‘Behavioral Mapping of Abu Dhabi’s Public Spaces’; Khaled Alawadi, et al., ‘Assessing
Walkability in Hot Arid Regions: The Case of Downtown Abu Dhabi’, Urban Design International 27
(2021). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41289-021-00150-0 (accessed 4 July 2022 ).
70
Alawadi et al., ‘Assessing Walkability in Hot Arid Regions’.
71
Scoppa, Bawazir, and Alawadi, ‘Walking the Superblocks’, pp. 359–69.
72
Khaled Alawadi et al., ‘Revisiting Transit-Oriented Development: Alleys as Critical Walking Infrastruc-
ture’, Transport Policy 100 (2021), pp. 187–202. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.11.007
(accessed 4 July 2022).
73
Elsheshtawy, ‘Informal Encounters’, pp. 92–113.
74
‘Three years ago, I lived in an area where the roads were too wide. The houses were too big. So,
nothing was close to me. So, if I want to run some errands, if I want to go to the grocery, I cannot walk to
the nearest grocery shop because they have to cross an avenue. So back then, yes, I dependent that also
on roads, I couldn’t do any basic daily routine or take any baby’ (Interviewee HAH).
75
In compounds ‘unlike my previous neighbourhood [suburban villa type neighbourhood], you can see
everyone walking. In the streets, all the men and woman are walking to the nearest grocery shop […] The
these areas only provide for those who can afford to live there and drive, as these gated
communities are often inaccessible to those who walk or take public transport, including
the people who service these communities such as nannies, gardeners and cleaning staff.
Figure 11: (a) Street Appropriation; (b) Sikka
Photo by Alexandra Gomes (a) and Apostolos Kyriazis (b)
Disconnecting people
High levels of motorisation together with low-density development led Abu Dhabi, as
many Gulf cities, to rely on buses as the only means of public transport.76 In Abu Dhabi
the bus network coverage is below the needs of its population. The bus network is scarce
in lower density suburban areas and is difficult for pedestrian to access the bus stops.77
Those who depend on buses often need to adjust their timetables or wait a long time for
a bus, even in the cases of company buses provided by employers.78 The only alternative
to the bus is the taxi that, although cheaper than in other countries, is still unaffordable to
most low-income workers.79
street within the compound becomes a social experience’ (Interviewee HAH).

76
77
Clémence Montagne, ‘Voices of Expatriate and Bus User Women in Abu Dhabi (UAE). Constraints
and Detour Strategies’, Women’s Issues on transportation ‘Bridging the Gap’ 5th International (2014). Avail-
able at: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12458/157 (accessed 4 July 2022).
78
Philippe Fargues, Nasra M. Shah and Imco Brouwer, ‘Working and Living Conditions of Low-Income
Migrant Workers in the Hospitality and Construction Sectors in the United Arab Emirates: A Survey among
Migrant Workers through Focus Group Discussions’, Technical Report, Migration Policy Center; GLMM;
GRC 2019/02 (2019). Available at: https://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/65986 (accessed 4 July 2022).
79
Abdellatif Qamhaieh and Surajit Chakravarty, ‘Global Cities, Public Transportation, and Social Exclu-
sion: A Study of the Bus System in Abu Dhabi’, Mobilities 12/3 (2017), pp. 462–78.
Transport and mobility in Abu Dhabi, as other cities in the region, are intimately related
to equity and social exclusion.80 Emiratis and most high-income expats drive and have
negative attitudes towards buses, while migrant workers become captive riders – public
transport users without a modal choice.81 The fact that migrant workers often live in
working compounds in Abu Dhabi’s far suburbs add to this challenge. It excludes them
from certain areas of the city and easy access to spaces and facilities, demonstrating that
investment in the improvement of public transport systems that cater for both demo-
graphic groups is fundamental.82 If using public transport might be a challenge, the
pedestrian infrastructure is also not fully prepared for walking. Barriers created by road
design and layout, including protective measures to avoid car accidents such as road bar-
riers, put pedestrian lives in danger while crossing the roads.
Planning in Abu Dhabi continues to have a strong desire for control, with a focus on the
efficiency of movement and segregation of uses. Street life, as found in organic and his-
torical cities, is not present. The lack of an historic centre, the fact that streets are not
considered or designed to be public space and the destruction of heritage buildings indi-
cates the need to control informal development having a direct impact on street life.83
Unlike in more compact urban forms, roads in Abu Dhabi are mostly transitional places.
They are places to pick up work, park the car or shop. Most residential neighbourhoods
have minimal or no urban design investment for people to stay and linger. The interior of
the blocks is secluded from the major arteries where roads and parking spaces dominate.
There is no space for activity or encouragement for this area to be used as a social space
by residents and visitors.84 Furthermore, streets lack basic elements such as seating areas,
shade and kiosks that could attract informality and socialisation. This is particularly rel-
evant for low-income workers who cannot afford to use private and commercial areas.
Without formalised infrastructure, these workers use all available spaces, such as leftover
spaces often close to work or transport nodes, to rest and meet with others.85
Streets are also a barrier for children. Apart from non-Emirati areas with some higher
densities (e.g. Al Reef ) where a playground with fake green grass exists, no children are
seen playing outdoors in residential neighbourhoods. Proximity to traffic, poor pedestrian
infrastructure and no playgrounds, seating, water fountains or shaded areas prevent fami-
lies and children from using the public spaces. In the CBD, children play on the sidewalks
or between buildings (inappropriate locations to play).86 In the suburbs, even with lower
traffic levels, issues of safety emerge in relation to kids playing in the street seeing many
high-income residents moving to gated communities to feel safer.87
80
Mayada Adnan, Almardood and Praveen Maghelal, ‘Enhancing the Use of Transit in Arid Regions:
Case of Abu Dhabi’, International Journal of Sustainable Transportation 14/5 (2020), pp. 375–88.
81
Qamhaieh and Chakravarty, ‘Global Cities, Public Transportation, and Social Exclusion’, pp. 462–78.
82
Ibid p. 473; Almardood and Maghelal, ‘Enhancing the Use of Transit in Arid Regions’, pp. 375–88.
83
Elsheshtawy, ‘Informal Encounters’, pp. 92–113.
84
Ibid.
85
Ibid.
86
Alwadi, et at., ‘Revisiting Transit-Oriented Development’, pp. 187–202.
87
‘[In gated communities] you feel more comfortable for your kids to be walking in the streets, walking
to the park, walking to the grocery. I see kids walking from the compound five minutes to the grocery
and back. I would never see this in other parts of the city’ (Interviewee HAH).
The issue of disconnectivity is most pronounced in the suburbs, notably the Emirati
neighbourhoods on the mainland. Although walkability has recently improved, most
improvements are linked to exercising and some daily needs, not functional walking or
cycling to work. Suburban landscape covers over 70 percent of the developed land in
Abu Dhabi and walkability in these areas, though improving, is still limited due to cultural
trends (preference for car, gender, etc.), design, climate and psychological reasons.88 89
Figure 12: (a) Bus Stop Isolation; (b) Walled Compounds
Photo by Peter Schwinger (a) and Alexandra Gomes (b)
The Future of Roads

This section introduces a discussion about the future of roads and suggests reformulating
current policies and planning practices to address some of the disconnections created by
roads in Abu Dhabi.
There are four main parameters to discuss when exploring this topic: citizenship, location,
technology and governance. Citizenship in the Gulf often influences elements such as
housing typologies and car use affordability. Location relates directly to the quality of the
space, proximity to main amenities, the central nodes of public transport and the poten-
tial for the use of sustainable modes of transport (walking and cycling). Technology is
fundamental when discussing roads, from car technology to traffic control or even online
commerce and its impact on movement. Finally, governance, as strategy and policies are
shaping the present and can be fundamental in determining the future.
While roads are the basic infrastructure to go from A to B in Abu Dhabi, these are mostly
designed under a segregating bias of ethnicity and financial status. Coverage, connectivity
and frequency of buses in low-density suburbs should be improved and roads planned for
all, including the ‘temporary’ residents such as non-citizen workers.
88
Rode et al., ‘Resource Urbanisms’; Alawadi et al., ‘Assessing Walkability in Hot Arid Regions’.
89
‘The way you use the road also depends a lot on the land use. What are these roads connecting? If I
have to walk with my daughter, who is 3 years old for 20 minutes, in a street it would be impossible for
me. With kids is very difficult’ (Interview HAH).
Location and the geography of the city is also important, as urban development in Abu
Dhabi island is different from the mainland. The impact of roads might change with a
coordinated (re)investment in the infrastructure that supports and creates the incentives
for car use. This includes:
• shifting from highways to alternative transport modes and relevant infrastructure
as well as better road design guidelines that increase connectivity for public trans-
port, pedestrians and cyclist;
• shifts on urban form and housing typologies with infills rather than ‘leapfrog’ de-
velopment;
• a better relation between public transport-densification and changes on the land
use system;
• changes in the street layout.
Desire lines are a design condition that impacts those who use the streets and reduces
transport equity and inequalities in the use of space. Urban reactivation of empty plots,
the sikka and informal areas for play, sports and socialising are an opportunity to activate
urban space. Current investment in pavement and cycle lanes in many Emirati neighbour-
hoods seems fragmented. The changes need to focus more on the functional use of the
infrastructure, such as commuting to work or shopping. Superblocks’ permeability, malls,
parking along with the demolition of walled boundaries around gated communities would
improve space connectivity and the visual landscape, impacting the footfall and density
of street use. Direct access and connectivity between entrances/gates/streets and public
space with public transport is also fundamental in the support of socialisation, social
cohesion and reducing inequalities while also improving walkability and the environment.
Digital work and online commerce, which have seen an increased demand in recent years,
already impacts the use of roads. Driving less for commuting due to more permanent
online shifts can affect the use of neighbourhood-scale provision for leisure and social
activities. Accommodating this new focus will be fundamental for the future of Abu Dhabi.
On the other hand, online commerce company drivers need better conditions to safely
travel and work, as they currently risk their lives on the highways. The recently imple-
mented highway tolls negatively impact those who cannot afford them and therefore less
of an impact on those who drive the most, leading to increased inequalities in mobility.
Electric vehicles, while improving local emissions and the environment, are still depen-
dent on electricity generation and occupy the same (land) space as the current petrol
vehicles. On demand transport and shared mobility could be considered for those who
mostly work from home and do not need a car to commute. This could be used by expats
and Emiratis, as an efficient, and comfortable alternative to car and public transport as well
as encouraging walking for short trips and the use of information technology to improve
walkability. Urban governance and policies should improve its consideration of the social
fabric. Guidelines are too technical and often disregard the social dimension. A change
of perception of what a city means is essential. The lack of accessibility to amenities and
facilities, the acceptance of distant suburban areas by Emiratis and the implications from a
distinct governance system for the gated communities are issues to consider. The dynam-
ics of urban regeneration on both the downtown superblocks and the old industrial zones
of Mina Zayed and Musaffah are also absent. Finally, decentralisation and polycentrism
– can the creation of different centres, and self-contained neighbourhoods help change
mobility and liveability? All these are elements to consider in the future of strategic plan-
ning and local governance.
Conclusion
This paper employs a socio-spatial approach to examine the physical and social effects
of road investment and the car-centric development in Abu Dhabi. It explores how road
design can either include or exclude people and neighbourhoods, acknowledging the
importance of not only altering the functional aspects of roads but also incorporating
recreational, social and aesthetic elements into the design. This study illustrates that
merely providing social spaces will not address the inherent problems within road infra-
structure, including mobility barriers, sustainability challenges and the exacerbation of
inequalities. It emphasises the need for a more holistic approach to urban planning aimed
at improving liveability.
The study concludes that roads are designed in a dysfunctional manner, affecting both
Emiratis and non-Emiratis, drivers and non-drivers in distinct ways. It suggests that roads
are a fundamental tool for challenging and changing the current urban dynamics of the
city. The aim is to provide policymakers and institutions with a better understanding of
local perspectives and policy recommendations to work towards a more equitable and
sustainable future.
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Cover Image
A Road in Abu Dhabi.
Photographer: Apostolos Kyriazis
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Middle East

Alexandra Gomes, Apostolos Kyriazis,

LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series | 80 | December 2023

The Middle East Centre builds on LSE’s long

The Middle East Centre aims to enhance un-

Roads (Dis)connecting Cities and Neighbourhoods:

LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series | 80

Sepehr Zhand is Research Fellow at

Figure 1: Population and Road Related Indicators7

Population density (pers/km) % non-citizen population Road traffic mortality rate

Figure 2: Road Construction in Abu Dhabi Region12

Abu Dhabi internal roads length (km)

Research Approach and Methodology

Figure 3: Framework of Analysis and Inter-Relationships Between Elements

Vehicles Gated communities

Functional Urban roads Streetscape

Local level spaces Governance, road planning and design instruments

The History of Roads and Urban Development

Governance, Road Planning and Design Instruments

Roads on the Metropolitan Scale

Average distance to different levels of accessibility centres per block typology

800m 1,200m 5,000m 10,000m

Roads on the Neighbourhood Scale

Figure 5: Selection of Neighbourhood Spatial Analysis Cases

Population density (pers/ha)

Figure 8: DRI Values and Population Density for All Areas

Population density (pers/ha)

DRI Walk DRI Drive Population density (pers/ha)

Figure 9: (a) Pedestrians Refuge Space; (b) Over-Supply of Road Capacity

Photo by Apostolos Kyriazis (a) and Alexandra Gomes (b)

The Functional Use of Roads

Figure 10 : Points of Interest, Special Residential Areas, and Their Connectivity

An equally important factor of disconnection is the streetscapes in terms of design options

The Social Use of Roads

uate School of Design (2017). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpvT-cEfQSA (accessed 4

Figure 11: (a) Street Appropriation; (b) Sikka

Photo by Alexandra Gomes (a) and Apostolos Kyriazis (b)

street within the compound becomes a social experience’ (Interviewee HAH).

Figure 12: (a) Bus Stop Isolation; (b) Walled Compounds

Photo by Peter Schwinger (a) and Alexandra Gomes (b)

The Future of Roads

The views and opinions expressed in this publication

Middle East Centre

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