The Middle East may have been late to urbanization, but this has provided a unique opportunity to shape its urban-mobility strategies. Rather than adopting a piecemeal approach, leaders such as Dubai are following an ecosystem model that addresses mobility holistically. In this article, the authors explain this new model and the lessons it provides for other cities across the world as they struggle to meet their own urban-mobility challenges.

By 2050 67% of the world’s population is predicted to live in cities. Across the globe, this is leading to mobility challenges as urban areas struggle to ensure that their populations can move around freely using both public and private transport.
Solving these issues is critical to ensuring that cities thrive and attract the investment and people they need to grow.
The Middle East may have been late to urbanization, but that has provided a unique opportunity to shape its urban mobility strategies. Some of its vibrantly growing urban centers, such as Dubai, are now building on best practice from around the world. This experience provides lessons, good and bad, for other cities across the world as they struggle to meet their own urban mobility challenges.