Measuring the Sustainability of Transport System in Amman

Urban governments show great interest in formulating policies for the sustainable transport sector. Many tend to integrate environmental, economic, and social impacts into transport decision-making, and develop a system capable of achieving all transport objectives which are: accessibility, safety, affordability, and environmentally friendly. The purpose of this study is to measure the sustainability of Amman transportation system based on United States environmental protection agency guidelines, using four performance measures: transit accessibility, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per capita, carbon intensity, and transit productivity. Wadi Al-sair and Al Abdali Districts were selected to represent Amman. Accessibility was evaluated using GIS software; estimation of VMT per capita, carbon intensity, and transit productivity were mainly based on data obtained from field survey. The results reveal that accessibility is good in the study area, while VMT per capita was found to be lower than in the United States, carbon intensity was higher than the world average, while transit productivity was higher than in developed countries. The study concluded that the system needs improvement in all measured areas to go towards sustainability, in addition to a significant reliance on private transit at the expense of public transport. Public transport must be improved to encourage people to move towards it. As well as the adoption of intelligent land-use growth, such as comprehensive urban and regional planning, including compact cities, mixed land use, and transit oriented development.