The Impact of Automobiles on Urban Planning: The Case of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Since the introduction of automobiles in the 1950s in Saudi Arabia, cities evolved around automobile infrastructure, such as roads and highways. As a matter of fact, the prosperous conditions and cheap gasoline prices in Saudi Arabia were major factors to the private mass transit that was built for strategic goals as well as functional ones. This essay investigates the role of roads, infrastructure, and automobile systems in the urban development of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between the 1960s and 1980s. Moreover, this mode of mobility affected the socio-economic development and defined the new public sphere. This research will help to understand how mobility infrastructure developments affected the public domain in Riyadh and how the automobile shaped the urban form in the city.