Analysis and study of citizens' travel behavior in the middle cities of Iran and its comparison with developed countries (Case study of Birjand)

This paper presents a conceptual framework for research on travel behavior by defining the scope of the research goal and conceptualizing the traveler as a transport network actor in terms of infrastructure, human networks, and addressing the social content of activities. Also, the study and analysis of passenger behavior in the middle cities of Iran (Birjand), including the frequency of travel of different people per day, the purpose of travel and mode selection is presented. Then, the differences between Birjand city in Iran and developed countries (USA, UK and Netherlands) in passenger behavior are compared, and the obtained data are analyzed. This research is of a fundamental type and its method is a combination (quantitative-qualitative) in the form of survey, descriptive and analytical. The statistical population of the study is selected from the users of Birjand public transportation network and the statistical sample size is selected based on Cochran's formula, during which 389 people including 202 men and 187 women are selected. The results show that people over the age of 60 choose to go shopping, entertainment and physical education more than those under the age of 60. Women shop more than men, on the contrary, more men choose entertainment and physical education than women. As people get older, more and more people choose walking as the main mode of travel, and less people choose bicycles or motor cars to travel.