MENA Region: The Case of Metropolitan Cairo

Extreme auto dependency, and consequent congestion issues are increasingly exacerbating the urban environments in the metropolitan Cairo region; overshadowing the total quality of life; physical, social and psychological. It has become inevitable to utilize human centric mobility modes such as bicycling, to create an "active environment" through motivating non-motorized design concepts, which will alter the lives of the city's residents. Transportation, urban planning and public health would be greatly enhanced by adopting bikeablity street design infrastructure interventions, especially in a historic urban fabric. Cairo, is an eligible city (with roots to the beginning of civilization) to examine the possibilities of transforming it into an -active city- with active citizens. Therefore, more research needs to be directed towards methodologies on how to transform existing streets of greater Cairo, to adopt the active design concept. This paper will discuss and analyze the urban fabric typologies in the context of Cairo with a specific number of categories, and show existing problems, potentials to utilize form-based codes, and linking it to its current congestion problems and auto-dependency. Based on that, it will present possible bicycle infrastructure solutions within the chaotic behavior pattern and transportation grid to promote human-powered mobility interventions. The outcome is in the form of an analysis of urban street types, and how they can be transformed to promote bicycle urbanism by design.