The most interesting part of the ISOCARP conference I attended in December 2025 were trips to particular projects. All those are meant to make a city of seven millions more resilant and improve the quality of life, especially cope with global warming and traffic. Unfortunately many were parallel sessions, I opted for Sports Boulevard, but missed out the trip to King Salman Park.
Members of our excursion of Sports Boulevard
So far only 4,5km of the 140km have been transformed into bike lanes, playgrounds, parks, walking trails and water plays. A former industrial area was chosen, ugly electricity towers dominated the place. Today only one colourful one is left, a reminder of what the identy of the place once was.
Such towers dominanted the area- this one was turned into an art project
This is what the area looked like before
https://sportsboulevard.sa/en/districts/promenade is a very ambitious project, 135 km bike lanes and hiking paths will connect the east of of Riyad with the west. Once it is finished it will feature 50 sports facilities, 4 milions square meter of green, restaurants, repair shops.
Bikes for rent
We were taken around by young engineers who had been involded in planning the project. Three camera men, all recording this showing off of Sports Boulevard. Coffee, sweets and water was constantly served.
One of the young engineers who planned Sports Boulevard
Cameras were always present
Coffee and sweets were constantly served
We arrived during the hot morning, there were no people around doing any sports so I asked when this place is really busy: evening and weekends.
Walking “The Thread” – gives you a great overview of The Promenade, the part of Sports Boulevard finished
“The Promenade” during day time os pretty deserted
I wanted to see what the place looks like filled with people and returned late at night. It was mainly families and few joggers, women renting bikes and young boys riding their bikes. They were super polite, when my Uber driver could not find me, they offered to her, actually everybody around did.
Families come in the evening
Since this is a former industrial area and in the process of being developed there are not many residential areas in the immediate neighborhood. I guess some families even drove there so find a place where their kids could safely play and move around.
Young women renting bikes
kids learn who to ride a bike- for those times to come when Riyadh has real bike lanes
Cafteria
Security is quietly floating around on these three-wheeled scooters
King Salman Park
It did not get to see this place since it was a parallel activity to Sports Boulevard, but it is another of the gigantic project in Action to cool down the city and above all creat sport facilities. Obviously the government is concerned with its citizens moving to little. This assumptions is not far fetched, roads are so wide even in downtown Riyadh that there is no chance of crossing safely, or at all.
King Salman Park
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