Unsustainability in emergent systems: A case study of road transport in the Greater Beirut Area

The land transportation network in Lebanon faces continuing and wide-ranging challenges at the level of infrastructure development, planning and overall system management. These challenges are already significant enough to seriously hamper the network´s ability to deliver an acceptable level of service within reasonable norms for environmental, health and safety impacts, especially in and around the country´s major urban centers. This reality makes the road transport system in Lebanon one of the most unsustainable in the region, and as such a key candidate for closer assessment. In this paper we present a detailed case study of the passenger road transport system in the Greater Beirut Area (GBA) where we identify the root causes of the major problems facing the system today and over the long-term. We propose a framework of corresponding mitigation options as a roadmap for improving the sustainability of the system, namely by reducing the reliance on fossil fuels, decreasing pollutants and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, reducing mobility costs and increasing passenger safety.