Sustainable Cities and Society 69 (2021) 102831 Available online 4 March 2021 2210-6707/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Towards sustainable pedestrian mobility in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia: A case study B. Sultan , I.M. Katar , M.E. Al-Atroush * Department of Engineering Management, College of Engineering, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Sustainable mobility Riyadh city Transport mode choice Pedestrian environment COVID-19 pandemic Factors affecting the individual behavouir Sustainable development goals ABSTRACT A new public transportation network is currently being constructed in Riyadh city. Public buses and Riyadh metro are expected to be available for the passengers shortly. Based on the Saudi Vision 2030, the government directed billions of dollars to rehabilitate the infrastructures and sidewalks to support the national trans- formation to sustainable mobility. With that in mind, understanding the individual’s choice of mobility mode is necessary to adopt appropriate planning and management policies. In this paper, a comprehensive assessment study has been carried out to examine the individual’s travel patterns in Riyadh city through a case study of the Prince Sultan University’s (PSU) community and evaluate the pedestrian environment’s quality around the campus. Individuals’ travel patterns were analyzed using a web-based survey addressed to the PSU community, including; Students, Faculty, and Staff. Moreover, the quality of the pedestrian’s environment was in-situ eval- uated based on well-defined indicators. The results of this assessment addressed the factors influencing the pedestrian mode choice and highlighted the barriers that may delay the transformation to sustainable mobility. Based on this study’s conclusions, several recommendations have been proposed to promote the transformation to sustainable mobility in Riyadh city. 1. Introduction Over the past decenniums, the transport modes have rapidly evolved, increasing speed, autonomy, reliability, and comfortability. Every day, they make us go faster and farther. However, some of those modes significantly contribute to changing our climate. The current mobility system in several capitals heavily relies on fossil-fueled private vehicle usage (Arrow, 2011; Manders, Cox, Wieczorek, & Verbong, 2020; Nieuwenhuis, Vergragt, & Wells, 2006; Shaaban, 2020). In European cities, Hooftman, Messagie, Mierlo, and Coosemans (2018) showed that about 30 % and 50 % of cars’ trips are shorter than 3 km and 5 km, respectively. The considerable car numbers and their prominent role in our recent communities are concerned with several environmental problems such as overcrowding, local air emissions, and shortage in open spaces. Nanaki et al. (2017) concluded that cars’ intensive use causes around 40 % of the global CO 2 emissions. Arsenio and Ribeiro (2015), Fontalvo, Ar´evalo-T´amara, Barbosa, and Guti´errez-Torres (2018) and Shannon et al. (2006) agreed that extensive vehicle usage is often a source of sedentary behaviors and physical inactivity, a principal risk factor for early death-rate and multiple health issues, such as diabetes and obesity. Today’s mobility choices can either be the main reason for pollution and traffic congestion or be the way for sustainable possibilities. Access for all, efficiency, safety, and climate respect are the four goals of sus- tainable mobility (Banister, 2008; Nevens & Roorda, 2014) and the main targets of sustainable development goal number eleven, as addressed in the UN plan (Economic and Social Affairs’ Department, UN, 2020). In fact, there is a considerable debate around the definition of the sus- tainable mobility concept and how to measure or assess the performance of operating the concept of sustainable mobility into different systems and policies (Ca˜ nete-Medina, 2008; Cormier & Gilbert, 2005; Gud- mundsson, 2003; Holden, Banister, G¨ ossling, Gilpin, & Linnerud, 2020). Sustainable development has been defined in many ways; however, the most frequently quoted definition is: " the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland, 1987). In parallel, people and goods’ capability to move or to be transferred is the common definition of mobility. The mobility could be described as sustainable if it was developed in a way that adheres to safety, environmentally se- cures the supplies of life’s material requirements, and encloses equality * Corresponding author at: Department of Engineering Management, College of Engineering, Prince Sultan University, P.O. Box 66833, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. E-mail address: mezzat@psu.edu.sa (M.E. Al-Atroush). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Sustainable Cities and Society journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scs https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.102831 Received 6 September 2020; Received in revised form 27 February 2021; Accepted 2 March 2021