Modeling the factors affecting the citizens' acceptance to walk: A case study of Kashan City

Introduction: Nowadays, the physical expansion of cities has made citizens dependent on private and public vehicles to move around the city to meet their needs. In recent decades, many cities around the world have made efforts to improve their central texture. One of these measures has been to build turns in some streets into sidewalks, which has proved to improve the quality of the environment by eliminating or reducing car traffic on busy streets. Walking is as natural as breathing. Increased physical activity is one of the biggest health concerns of the 21st century. Encouraging people to walk as a superior way to move them is very important due to its positive effects, and strategies need to be adopted to make it attractive. The purpose of implementing these policies is to increase the environmental quality of walking through the street space which is the right of way for pedestrians. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of socio-economic factors on pedestrian acceptance in Kashan. The research is of an applied type.
Methodology: The research method in the present study is descriptive-analytical.  To obtain and collect up-to-date data, the researcher prepared a questionnaire which, according to the research background and theoretical foundations, included many socio-economic issues affecting the acceptance of walking in Kashan. The statistical population of the present study consisted of the city population of 304487. The sample size was estimated to be 150 people based on the Sample Power software. The data were analyzed by the SPSS and AMOS software programs. The main tool of this research was a questionnaire with 68 items whose content validity was confirmed by experts, and the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by completing 30 initial questionnaires and performing Cronbach's alpha test. Cronbach's alpha test was also used to determine compatibility. The reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha test in the SPSS environment for 44 questionnaire items. A number was obtained to indicate the reliability of the questionnaire.
Results and Discussion: The results of the analyses indicate that the variables of age, sex, and location contribute for more than 0.5, which is statistically significant. It is also indicated that the underlying factors (i.e. age, gender, and neighborhood) are effective in accepting the walk. The variables of social interaction, happiness, attractiveness, attendance, and enhanced level of awareness are of higher effects than the desired average (3), and the variables of security and satisfaction with services are lower than the average. According to the average values obtained, the sum of the averages of social indicators is equal to 3.28. It can be stated that the total of social variables in this region is at a higher level than the average. This factor indicates the desirability of social indicators in the region. Among the economic factors, the variables rate of business use, the prosperity of use, commercial real estate, residential real estate, willingness to buy, and travel cost have been defined as significant (0.05). Also, according to the upper and lower limits and the significance levels, the variables of business usage, prosperity, commercial and residential real estate, and travel costs are significant and of appropriate evaluation indexes, and the variable of multiple shopping centers is higher than 3; due to the level of significance of 0.257 and the upper and lower limits, it is not significant and, thus, inappropriate. The average of the total economic indexes is found higher than the average level, which indicates the desirability of this index in the region. The findings of the second-order factor model show which variables are ultimately more important. The findings show that the social factor has the highest factor load of 0.89 and is more effective than the other factors. Next to the social factor, there are the health factor with a factor load of 0.6 and the economic variable with a factor load of 0.58. Therefore, it can be said that the social factor has the greatest impact on the acceptance rate of pedestrians.
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, suggestions are viewed reasonable for accepting to walk in Kashan. They are as follows: Creating micro-service applications for easier access, creating public open spaces such as squares, local parks, providing adequate lighting for sidewalks at night, using signs and boards to identify sidewalks and places of interest in Kashan, increasing the width of the sidewalks, and providing access to shops, benches, chairs, kiosks and toilets in the city.