The Magazine of the American Planning Association, May/June 2010

By: Rudayna Abdo of Otak 

Transforming Abu Dhabi into a modern city includes taming the car.

The recent history of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is a testament to how a small, well-governed people in a remote corner of the globe can manage growth pressures that have torn apart far larger countries.

Abu Dhabi is one of seven emirates in the UAE. It has been overshadowed in recent years by the Las Vegas-like development of far smaller Dubai, but it remains the region’s economic engine. Spread over 80 percent of the UAE’s land mass, Abu Dhabi produces 95 percent of its oil. After years of wild population growth, from 40,000 in 1967 to almost 1.8 million today, the emirate anticipates a population of over three million by 2030. Foreign workers account for almost all of that growth.

This rapid change has led to new developments of all sorts, including transportation. In the late 1960s, the city of Abu Dhabi was a small waterfront settlement with no paved roads and no cars. Residents lived in barasti (palm frond) huts with no electricity, running water, or sewage system. Today, thanks to large-scale oil production, the city is part of a thriving modern metropolitan area with a population of nearly one million—and with all modern conveniences.

The city itself is defined by a grid system that was introduced in the early 1970s by Katsuhiko Takahashi, a young, U.S.-educated Japanese planner. Its typical superblocks are bounded by free-form perimeter roads and corner roundabouts. Housing ranges from 20-story high rises on the periphery to mid rises and villas toward the center. Each superblock is essentially a mixed use neighborhood with ground-floor retail and commercial services, along with schools and essential community facilities. Traveling within and between the superblocks is challenging for both pedestrians and drivers, a point that has received a great deal of attention in the last few years...