Investigating the factors affecting the development of public transportation according to the urban form (Case study: Pirsara, Golsar, Lakanshahr, and Maskan Mehr neighborhoods of Rasht)

The use of public transport is considered a need for society, because of problems such as waste of time, air pollution, higher costs, etc that are caused by the use of private cars. The form of the city, which directly affects the development of public transport, is one of the criteria that must be considered. If these factors are properly identified and used accurately, they can contribute to development based on the needs of society. There are organic and designed forms in the city of Rasht, so it is not possible to develop public transportation without considering the form of the city. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of urban form indicators on public transportation in four neighborhoods in Rasht. The present study is a developmental study using a quantitative method. "Shannon Entropy" and "Cumulative Weight Assessment Model (WASPAS)" methods, have been used to weight the indicators and rank the neighborhoods. In the first step, the current status matrix was adjusted based on the urban form indicators. In the second step after standardization of the matrix, the indicators were weighted by the Shannon entropy method. Then the WASPAS method was used to rank the neighborhoods; Therefore, in the third step, after calculating the weight of the indicators the data were normalized. In the fourth step, the weighted sum matrix (WSM) is formed and the weighted sum of the indicators is calculated. Then in the fifth step, the weight multiplication matrix (WPM) is formed and the weight multiplication of the indicators is calculated. In the sixth step, the variance Q1 and Q2 are calculated. In the seventh step, for the final ranking of the neighborhoods, the Landa (l) value of each neighborhood is calculated. Finally, in the eighth step, for the final ranking of neighborhoods, the value for each neighborhood is calculated. The ranking of the studied neighborhoods shows that Pirsara is ranked first among the four neighborhoods studied. In other words, the impact of urban form indicators on public transportation in the Pirsara neighborhood is more than in other neighborhoods. Golsar, Maskan Mehr, and Lakan neighborhoods are also in the next ranks. This means that the neighborhoods with a higher rank in this study can develop more public transportation, and with proper and principled planning, the situation of these neighborhoods in terms of public transportation can be improved. Due to the limitations of the urban form of Rasht and also the mentioned neighborhoods, it is not possible to implement various modes of transportation such as subway, BRT, etc; Therefore, it is suggested that the existing modes in each neighborhood should be developed according to the research findings. Also, according to the ranking of neighborhoods, despite the suitable form of the Pirsara neighborhood, this neighborhood has the least variety of transportation modes among the mentioned neighborhoods. As a result, according to the needs of the mentioned neighborhood, it is suggested to create a bicycle and pedestrian path in this neighborhood. Also, the Pirsara neighborhood can use shared vehicles.