Investigating the Factors affecting the Mode Choice Behavior of Disabled People - Case Study: Hamadan City

One of the main goals of the public transportation system is to create safe and easy travel conditions for all people in the community as well as to reduce the desire to use private modes of travel. In many cities, the current public transportation system does not provide such a situation for the disabled, because, in almost all public transport systems, there is no equipment for accessibility of the disabled (and in particular, wheelchair users). On the other hand, in order to increase the level of social justice between different groups of users of the public transportation system, adequate access routes must be made for the disabled, and also the public transport fleet must be equipped with special facilities for them. In order to evaluate the utility of different modes of transport in the event of accessibility for the disabled, it is necessary first to determine the role of factors influencing their mode choice behavior. In this research, the difference between two proportions and variance analysis statistical tests were used to determine the difference in behavior between different groups of the disabled. For this purpose, the individual and family characteristics of the individuals along with the mode of trips were asked for a community of 87 disabled people in Hamadan. Results indicate that the need for a wheelchair in travel, the number of family members and the ownership of electric wheelchairs have a significant effect on the selection of all modes of travel, while wheelchair ownership, income, sex and age are only effective in choosing some of the modes of travel. Also, the correlation analysis of independent variables does not show a strong linear relationship between them, while their correlation with the dependent variable is relatively strong.