Geographical Analysis of Psychological Barriers to Not Using of Public Transport in Ahvaz Metropolis

Document Type : Research article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Geography and Urban Planning, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz

2 Professor of Geography and Urban Planning, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz

3 MA in Geography and Urban Planning, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz

Abstract

Introduction  
Urban psychology seems to be a new subject, but findings shows that George Simmel published an essay, titled “the Metropolis and Mental Life” 100 years ago. He lectured it in Berlin in 1903, raising this question whether there is a relationship between their individual living environment and their mental state. Ten years later, the answer to this question led to the formation of a science called urban psychology. The history of this science can be summarized in a few sentences; Simmel put it this way 100 years ago, reminding us that urban design requires attention to human beings and their psychological needs and should not be limited to aesthetics alone. Therefore, no use of public transport apart from infrastructure issues such as fleet depletion, fleet shortages, economic issues, socio-cultural barriers, environmental issues and the management weaknesses of psychological barriers are also effective in preventing public transport use because psychological barriers are also one of the barriers to the development of public transport. Understanding citizens’ psychological factors via public transport can have important implications for urban transport policies as well as its promotion and management. The urban public transport system in all Iranian cities has also a number of psychological problems hindering not using. This issue varies in different cities due to the cultural, social and environmental diversity of Iranian cities and citizens’ psychological characteristics.
Methodology
The present study is applied-theoretical in terms of objectives and descriptive-analytical and survey in terms of research methods. The research data were collected from documentary, library, survey, and interviewing with people and urban planning experts. The research population consisted of citizens of eight districts of Ahvaz Metropolis. The questionnaires were distributed among 130 participants selected via stratified sampling technique according to the weight ratio of each district. In order to rank the psychological barriers in each of the different transport modes, the Expert Questionnaire was distributed among 15 psychologists in Ahvaz. The hypothesis testing method was based on the quantitative methods used for the first hypothesis via the paired T-test. Then, each of these barriers were ranked in different public transport modes of Ahvaz using ARAS decision making method to weight them. Moreover, the kriging interpolation method was employed for zoning these barriers in Ahvaz with ArcGIS software. After interpolating all the obstacles using the Reclassify tool, as a subset of Spatial Analyst Tools in the ArcToolbox the maps were prepared in a five-point spectrum (very low, low, medium, high and very high) and finally overlaid using the Weighted Sum function.
Results and discussion
In this paper, the psychological barriers to not using four public transport modes were measured and prioritized. This prioritization is significant because the relevant organizations are not capable of removing these barriers in one place and they need to be addressed in a cross-sectional method at different points of time, so they need to be prioritized. These barriers were then zoned across the city. The final zoning results showed that the psychological barriers to not using public transport in Zone 1 are very high because more than 85% of the area is in this range. Zone 2 has the least psychological barriers to not using public transportation because most of the area is in the low and very low range. Zone 3 also has the most psychological barriers to public transport use following Zone 1, as more than 90% of that is in the very high range and less than 5% is in the very low range. In addition, about 15% of Zone 4 is in the mid-range and other zones are in the high range. The analysis in Zone 5 also indicated that the medium, high, and low ranges can divide it into relatively equal parts. Overlapping psychological barriers to not using public transport in Zone 6 shows that the medium range is its lowest area, the difference is also seen in zone 7, because the high and medium range have the highest and the lowest area respectively. Make it up. Finally, Zone 8 is only in the medium range, with only three small zones comprising 10% of the total area, but 90% of it is in the high range.
Conclusion
This study proved that in not using public transport apart from infrastructure issues such as fleet burnout, fleet shortage, economic issues, socio-cultural barriers, environmental issues and management weaknesses, psychological barriers are also effective on not using public transport. Thus, psychological barriers are also one group of barriers to the public transport development, and these (psychological) barriers are the missing link of urban planning and management. These barriers also vary from place to place with respect to the natural environment, the human environment, and the psychological processes. This research is privileged compared with other studies in terms of accurate, scientific and comprehensive identification, ranking, zoning and their application in measuring psychological barriers to not using four public transport modes in the city. So far, little research has been conducted in this area. This study is one of the first steps taken in Iran and the first in Ahvaz. Establishing a department consisting of the Psychology and Urban Planning Team in municipalities to collect and measure the psychological barriers to not using public transport, establish a database to collect citizens' psychological information when using public transport, and train variable public transport in policymakers' training programs are the research recommended guidelines.

Keywords

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Geographical Urban Planning Research (GUPR)
Volume 7, Issue 4
January 2020
Pages 807-836

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