When the city is reorganized from within

Modern cities are witnessing rapid expansion that reflects ongoing economic and social transformations. However, this expansion does not necessarily translate into a genuine improvement in the experience of living within them. As urban sprawl extends, distances between people and their daily needs increase, and the cost of movement rises both temporally and economically, revealing a flaw in the city's organization rather than its growth. This raises a question that concerns not the scale of growth but its nature: Are we facing cities that are developing, or merely cities that are expanding?

This disparity is not due to growth itself, but rather to how its elements are arranged relative to one another. The city's components have been treated as separate domains: transport is managed as a standalone service, urban development takes shape independently of movement corridors, and economic activity is organized without sufficient connection to ease of access. As a result, internal connectivity weakens, elements drift apart, the cost of mobility swells, and the impact of public investment diminishes—not due to a lack of resources, but to a disorganized urban fabric.

In such a context, the imbalance lies not in the city's elements but in their locations, which calls for a rethinking of the role of movement within it. Transport, in its traditional form, is reduced to a means of travel, whereas if reframed, it could become a tool for organizing urban development and directing economic activity. It would then no longer be merely a response to existing movement but a factor in shaping it and a determinant of the city's very structure. Amid the urban transformations taking place in the Kingdom, this perspective gains particular importance: developing transport infrastructure is no longer an independent goal but an entry point for reorganizing urban growth in a more interconnected and efficient manner.

The impact of this shift does not stop at reorganizing the city but extends to reshaping its economy as well. Public transport, as demonstrated in many experiences, has relied on limited operating revenues that do not reflect the scale of investments directed toward it, reinforcing the view of it as a continuous financial burden. However, reconnecting it with its urban surroundings and associated economic activity opens the door to generating multiple forms of value, going beyond direct revenues to include real estate, commercial, and service uses. On this basis, public transport is no longer a standalone service project but part of a broader economic system in which movement and place are integrated, transforming investment in it from an operating cost into a value-generating asset.

When the relationship between movement and urban development is properly organized in this manner, it reflects on the nature of life within the city—not as a side effect but as a direct result of this interconnectedness. Distances shrink, accessibility becomes easier, and the need for heavy reliance on private vehicles diminishes, changing the character of urban life in a more balanced way. At this level, the humanization of cities is not presented as an independent goal but as a natural outcome of a well-organized city whose components are integrated and whose growth is directed to place people at the heart of its equation without separating them from its economic context.

Extending from that, this transformation takes on a dimension that goes beyond the sectoral framework to approach the level of an urban development strategy at the national scale. Reconnecting transport with urban development and economic activity not only improves resource efficiency but also redefines what is expected of the city to produce. It opens the door to more sustainable models for financing and operating urban projects, and shifts the role of the public sector toward enabling more integrated systems capable of attracting partnerships and achieving a better balance between economic efficiency and quality of life, without compromising the city's functions or identity.

Thus, the success of cities is not measured by how much they expand, but by their ability to organize that expansion in a way that enhances their internal connectivity, facilitates people's access to their needs, and makes movement a natural extension of life rather than a burden upon it.