A Sociological Analysis of the Relationship between Attitude towards Bicycle and Using Bicycle in Short Trips in Isfahan

Unstructured use of motor vehicles has created many social problems especially in large cities. Heavy traffic, fatal accidents, obesity and less mobility, voice pollution, air pollution, physical harms such as headache, eye sting, respiratory diseases, heart diseases, some cancers and finally increasing of consumption of the fossil fuel are some direct consequences of the expansion of the using motor vehicles in large cities. A basic strategy in confrontation with these social problems, is expansion of using bicycle in urban transportation particularly for short trips. Using bicycle has widely been considered in many large cities in developed countries because of economical, traffic, physical and the environmental advantages but has not been developed in Iran. Concerning the difficulties of Iranian large cities in base possibilities in transportation and also extraordinary production of the motor vehicles that has been reached to 2 million cars in a year, using bicycles is necessary. Many factors have been presented for explaining of the barriers of the expansion of the using bicycle for transportation but on the basis of the attitude-behavior theories in sociological area it seems that there is a significant relationship between attitude toward bicycle and using bicycle. Attitude is a negative or positive emotional state into a subject that consists of three dimensions of cognitive, behavioral and sentimental. Allport believed that attitude affects on ones response to objects and the related situations. Fishbein and Ajzen in framework of the reasoned action theory showed that there is a close relationship between attitude toward a specific behavior and doing that behavior but there is a mediator between them in which is titled intension that is ones tendency to act. Results of the meta analysis of the research that have investigated relationship between attitude and behavior show that attitude can explain behavior but the rate of the coefficient in every topic or area is different. Method and Materials: The research is a survey study. The population is all men aged 15-64 in Isfahan. Sample size is 400 persons that were selected by means of random multi stage sampling method. The measurement tool is two researcher-made scales including using bicycle and attitude into bicycle. The using bicycle scale was divided into two dimensions of working use and creational use, and attitude toward bicycle was defined into two aspects of cognitive and emotional attitude. Validity of the scales was measured by factor analysis technique, and reliability was calculated by cronbach alpha coefficient. Based on the results, KMO test is 0.933 for using bicycle scale, and 0.838 for attitude toward bicycle scale, which show that the sample size is adequate. Moreover, Bartlett test, is significant for both scales, suggesting that there is a significant correlation among variables. In total, the factor analysis of the using bicycle scale, after the elimination of 1 item, extracted two factors, including working and creational, and also factor analysis of the attitude toward bicycle scale, after the deletion of 6 items, extracted two factors, including cognitive and emotional. The results show that the explained variance in the using bicycle scale is 56.8 percent and in the attitude toward bicycle scale is 34.5 percent. The reliability of the scales has been calculated using alpha cronbach coefficient, that the value is 0.93 for the using bicycle scale, and 0.68 for the attitude toward bicycle scale.In total, 400 persons answered the questionnaires. The mean age of respondents is 33.7 years. 190 respondents (47.5%) are single and 209(52.2%) are married. 387 respondents (96.8%) are employed and 13(3.2%) unemployed. 11 respondents (2.8%) are illiterate, 84(21%) have education lesser diploma, 146(36.5%) are diploma, and 157 respondents (39.3%) have academic education. On the basis of the scales results, the mean using bicycle score with range of 0-76 is 18.02 and the mean attitude toward bicycle score with range of 14-70 is 51.3. Is there a significant relationship between attitude toward bicycle and using bicycle?For the purpose of the measurement of the relationship between two constructs totally, and their dimensions, simple linear regression test has been used. The results are presented in Table 1.On the basis of the Table 1, the relationship between attitude toward bicycle and using bicycle is significant. The table also shows that the relationships between various dimensions of the two constructs are significant, except the relationship between emotional attitude toward bicycle and creational use of bicycle.In the framework of the demographic variables, five variables including marital status, employment situation, age, income, and education level have been considered and their relationship with the using bicycle has been analyzed using suitable statistical tests. The results show that there is a significant relationship between marital status and using bicycle and the single men use bicycle more than married men. There is no significant relationship between employment situation and using bicycle. There is a significant relationship between age and using bicycle and with arising age using bicycle is decreased. There is a significant relationship between income and using bicycle and with increasing income using bicycle is decreased. And finally there is no significant relationship between education level and using bicycle. Discussion and The main goal of this research is to investigate relationship between attitude toward bicycle and using bicycle among the men in Isfahan. Based on the descriptive research findings, mean using bicycle score is low in Iran. This situation is not satisfactory for a metropolis such as Isfahan that has an increasing population and motor vehicles, and also has many difficulties in urban base facilities and must be changed. In addition to mean attitude toward bicycle is high that is an opportunity for urban planners.Inferential findings show that attitude toward bicycle has a significant impact on using bicycle. In other words, increase attitude toward bicycle means an increase in using bicycle for short trips. This research finding theoretically confirm relation between attitude and behavior. Moreover it is compatible with results of the research that show there is significant relationship between attitude toward bicycle and using bicycle. There is an inverse significant relationship between age and using bicycle and with rising age using bicycle is decreased. This research finding shows that urban infrastructure in Isfahan for using bicycle is not available and consequently with rising age, bicycle risk is increased. There is a direct significant relationship between income rate and using bicycle and with increasing income rate, using bicycle is also increased. This research finding is rooted in social prestige bicycle and higher classes prefer to use motor vehicle for transportation instead of bicycle. There is a significant relationship between marital status and using bicycle and single men use bicycle more than married men but there is no significant relationship between education level and using bicycle. This research findings show that with rising education level in spite of rising income, using bicycle is not decreased. And finally there is no significant relationship between employed and unemployed persons in using bicycle.On the basis of the evidences such as increasing population and motor vehicles in large cities in Iran and existence of difficulties in urban infrastructure for transportation, expansion of the culture of using bicycle is necessary. Findings of this research show that there is a significant relationship between attitude toward bicycle and using bicycle. So this article suggests that for diffusion of using bicycle culture, urban planners must try to create positive attitude toward bicycle among citizens and increase it.