Land-use–transportation integration under Saudi Vision 2030: policy alignment, institutional challenges, and urban mobility implications

Land-use – transportation integration (LUTI) is widely recognized as a cornerstone of sustainable urban development, yet its implementation remains challenging in rapidly growing, automobile-dependent cities. In Saudi Arabia, Saudi Vision 2030 has introduced an ambitious reform agenda that explicitly links urban livability, public transportation expansion, and spatial efficiency. This paper examines how LUTI is articulated, operationalized, and constrained within Saudi urban and transportation policy frameworks under Vision 2030, with comparative attention to Riyadh, Jeddah, and the Dammam Metropolitan Area. Using qualitative document analysis, the study reviews national strategies, sectoral transportation policies, and metropolitan planning instruments issued from 2016 to 2025. The findings reveal growing discursive alignment between land-use and transportation objectives, particularly around transit-oriented development and accessibility. However, translating these objectives into spatial outcomes remains uneven due to institutional fragmentation, transport-first sequencing, and limited use of binding land-use instruments. Riyadh demonstrates the most advanced integration pathway, whereas Jeddah and Dammam exhibit more corridor-based and fragmented approaches. The paper contributes to LUTI scholarship by highlighting governance and regulatory capacity as decisive factors shaping integration outcomes in car-oriented cities, with policy implications for other rapidly transforming, automobile-dependent metropolitan regions.