The Impact of the Economic and Demographic Components of a City on a Bicycle Trip Case Study: Zanjan City

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• shahrzad moghadam ¹
• isa piri ²
• ali khodayi ³
• mohamad gholami ⁴

¹ PhD in the Geography and Urban Planning

² Assistant Professor of Geography, zanjan University, Iran

³ Master student in urban planning, Zanjan University

⁴ Assistant Professor of Geography, payam noor University, Iran

Abstract

          In recent years, bike ride as a green trip has been attended by planners. In this regard, That's why the increase in facilities for safety, comfort and popularity of bicycles has been at the forefront of urban programs. Although demographic and economic characteristics have a great influence on the increase and decrease of travel by bike. This article is an applied study. The identification of economic and demographic components affecting bicycle trips is the goal of this paper. GIS software is used to prepare the data and data analysis and data analysis is done using MATLAB software. All statistical computations of this text of the earth are statistic; the significance level and the correlation coefficient are calculated in terms of 150 traffic districts. The findings of the research indicate that there is a significant relationship between economic and demographic components with the number of bicycle trips in Zanjan. The population density of students and employed has the highest correlation coefficient (0.46) and (0.42). Findings of the research indicate with the increase in the population of women and the unemployed, the number of bicycle trips in Zanjan is decreasing.
Extended Abstract
Introduction:
     In recent years, bike ride as a green trip has been attended by planners. In this regard, That's why the increase in facilities for safety, comfort and popularity of bicycles has been at the forefront of urban programs. Although demographic and economic characteristics have a great influence on the increase and decrease of travel by bike. This article is an applied study. The identification of economic and demographic components affecting bicycle trips is the goal of this paper. GIS software is used to prepare the data and data analysis and data analysis is done using MATLAB software. All statistical computations of this text of the earth are statistic; the significance level and the correlation coefficient are calculated in terms of 150 traffic districts.
Methodology:
      In the first step, demographic and economic variables are transformed into GIS layers by city's traffic zones; The fuzzy data standardization method is used for multi-criteria analysis and evaluation. Then the balanced scorecard outputs and the available data on economic and demographic components are operationalized in the form of measurable variables such as entropy coefficient for demographics, Gini coefficient for income level, nonlinear model for car ownership; has been used. After preparing the raster layers and classifying them according to the type of data; the process of scaling the data was performed. Then, the layers were invoked in the data matrix to perform reference geostatistical operations and tests in Matlab software. Statistical analysis of correlation and partial correlation were performed on the data and the coefficients were compared.
Results and discussion:
       According to the findings of this study, there is a direct relationship between the working population (0.41) and bicycle trips. This is in line with the findings of the 2008 study by Geus et al. The results showed that by increasing the level of income, bicycle travel in Zanjan decreased. If we don't consider the impact of other factors; As the level of income increases, the inverse relationship becomes a direct relationship; such as Studies of Troped (2003). Components and population structure of Zanjan have a significant relationship with the rate of bicycle travel in the city. The relationship between student population density (0.46) and bicycle travel in Zanjan's traffic areas is consistent with the findings of the present study with the Balts research in US cities. However, as in the Bonham and Wilson 2012 study, with the increase in the population of women (-0.62), cycling is significantly reduced. There is no significant difference in the correlation coefficients between age groups and bicycle travel. However, the findings of Boufous et al. 2011 show that young people are more likely to use bicycles than other age groups. Therefore, urban traffic managers must consider demographic, age, and gender characteristics, occupational groups, income levels, and work environment in traffic policies and programs. In that case we can expect the popularity of the bike ride.
Conclusion:
        The findings of the research indicate that there is a significant relationship between economic and demographic components with the number of bicycle trips in Zanjan. The population density of students and employed has the highest correlation coefficient (0.46) and (0.42). Findings of the research indicate with the increase in the population of women and the unemployed, the number of bicycle trips in Zanjan is decreasing.

Keywords

• Urban short trips
• demographic and economic characteristics
• bicycle
• Zanjan city

20.1001.1.22285229.1399.11.42.8.9

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