Mega-Cities: The Icon of Personal Mobility Challenges

Mega-cities are urban areas with more than 10 million residents. At least 25 mega-cities already exist worldwide. Twenty are located in the developing world, as are seven of the nine most populous. By 2015, there are projected to be at least 35 mega-cities, with virtually all the growth in developing countries. Mega-cities experience a wide range of social and environmental problems, many of them related to mobility.

All of the mega-trends we have identified, as well as other challenges to sustainable mobility, are at their worst in mega-cities, and engender paralyzing traffic congestion, air pollution, vehicle-related injuries and fatalities, and health problems. Furthermore, social inequality and the dislocation of families and communities are increasing as people move from rural areas to mega-cities seeking economic opportunities. To develop mega-city mobility strategies will require addressing the mobility needs of rural as well as urban residents, as many mega-city problems could be improved by developing new approaches to the transportation of people and goods between rural and urban areas, and by reducing the need for rural–urban migration.