Saudi Arabia’s oppressive regime, funded by drivers, turns to transit to keep its subjects happy

Multimodal transportation is a foreign concept to many Saudis. Will this change in the near future? (Photo by me)

The disappearance and alleged assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi added to Saudi Arabia's long list of human rights atrocities. This sort of barbaric behavior was nothing new for the Saudi regime, whose résumé is headlined by beheadings of non-violent individuals and bombings of Yemeni civilians. Revenue from oil – including another $18 billion from the car-loving U.S. last year, despite the rise of fracking – continues to be the primary funding source for the regime’s activities. 

As with any autocratic regime, it takes sophisticated manipulation, not just simple brutality, for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (known colloquially as MBS) and company to sustain their power and stability. Specifically, the royal family must engage in a subtle, endless tug-of-war, keeping its subjects content, but not emboldened as they go about their daily lives.

When people are forced to drive everywhere, they’re a lot less likely to be content with the status quo, regardless of how much fossil fuel sits under their desert. 

One reason Saudis today could decide to resist their leaders: their country’s transportation situation.

Traffic congestion in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photo courtesy of Arab News)

Though expanses of asphalt aren’t the best fit for a place where temperatures can rise above 120 Fahrenheit, mobility in the Kingdom was designed to benefit oil interests rather than to get people where they need to go. With only one transportation mode available for many trips and minimal infrastructure for non-car modes, traffic congestion reigns over all aspects of life and there is little people can do to avoid it.

The King Abdullah Financial District, a regime-funded suburban business park struggling to attract tenants, is surrounded by cars and asphalt. (Photo courtesy of Discover King Abdullah Financial District)

In a Washington Post column earlier this year, Khashoggi compared the problems plaguing Saudi Arabia’s auto-dependent cities to those America’s own Motor City has dealt with for decades.

In Khashoggi’s words, the urban cores of numerous Saudi metropolises are “miserable Third World slums that completely mock the oil riches of the Kingdom.” Yet the regime’s economic development projects seem to primarily promote sprawl, resulting in largely empty suburban business parks – or, as Khashoggi described, “cities in the sand” – like the King Abdullah Financial District on the outskirts of Riyadh.

Khashoggi contrasted Saudi Arabia's urban decay to Detroit’s recent renaissance, which has focused largely on renewal of central areas. He cited the city’s bustling QLine streetcar, which opened in 2017, as a primary symbol of that city’s revival.

The Saudi regime has done the unthinkable: devote some oil revenue to multimodal transportation    

A train on Saudi Arabia's Haramain High Speed Rail line. (Photo courtesy of Railway Gazette)

MBS may have been too thin-skinned to handle Khashoggi’s constructive criticism. But recent developments show that the regime may understand the threat that public dissatisfaction with oil-centric urban planning and mobility could pose to its iron grip on Saudi society.

The Haramain High Speed Rail, which opened just a few weeks ago, is the latest in a recent string of Saudi projects boosting transportation options other than cars. The rail line connects Mecca and Medina (via Jeddah) at 190 mph (300 km/h), on par with systems such as South Korea’s KTX, France’s TGV, and Italy's Frecciarossa, and faster than any American train. 

A metro train passes over a car-free road during the annual Hajj in Mecca. (Photo courtesy of SmartRail World)

Riyadh’s new metro system will follow hot on the heels of the high-speed trains. Revenue service on some portions of the six-line system may begin as soon as next year, with full operation set for 2021. Even the above-mentioned King Abdullah Financial District will get a station, albeit one that appears pretty difficult to get to on foot. 

Meanwhile, an elevated rapid transit line already operates in Mecca, connecting several major religious sites. During the annual Hajj pilgrimage, it’s one of the world’s most heavily used transit routes. 

More metro lines are under construction in Mecca, and urban rail is planned for three other localities. In addition, the country has imported thousands of buses for transit service expansions over the last few years.  

Will oil strongmen permit long-term transit success?

Top: a cyclist attempts to navigate fast-moving traffic as he passes the Saudi embassy (shrouded by trees on the left) in Washington, DC. Bottom: Interstate 66 separates the Saudi embassy from the rest of DC. (Photos by me) 

It remains to be seen whether the regime’s transit projects are part of a genuine effort to reform Saudi mobility, or instead comprise little more than a flashy initiative that provides nice propaganda fodder for the country's rulers, but lacks any real substance. Regardless of how advanced a transit system may appear at first glance, it will struggle to become a mainstream transportation option if it doesn’t offer frequent service and doesn’t take people where they need to go.  

If Saudi transportation culture has begun to change for the better, visitors to the Kingdom’s embassy in Washington, DC wouldn’t know it. The embassy is situated not on walkable Embassy Row, but instead in an isolated bubble cut off from town by an out-of-place freeway and oversized traffic circle. Michael Moore was questioned by Secret Service agents on the sidewalk across from the embassy during filming for Fahrenheit 9/11 15 years ago, and security guards with bullet-proof vests continue to intimidate passing pedestrians today.

For Saudi Arabia, this was business as usual, and it doesn’t bode well for the country’s people.