Evaluation of the influencing factors on the quality of pedestrian zones from the perspective of citizens (Case study: Two phases of Pedestrian Zone in Rasht)

Increasing population growth in urban areas has had adverse socio-economic, traffic and physical consequences for cities. So cities need to provide better places to live. One of these places is the creation of pedestrian zones or sidewalks. The aim of this study was to assess the factors affecting the quality of the two phases of the Rasht pedestrian zone from the citizens' point of view. The first phase of the pedestrian zone includes Alam al-Huda Street and the second phase includes Saadi, Imam Khomeini and Shahrdari squares. The method of the present research is applied based on the purpose and descriptive-analytical based on the method of implementation. In this research, in the first step, theoretical studies and research literature have been done and based on these studies, four criteria (physical-spatial, accessibility, socio-economic, micro-design) and 22 indicators have been selected. In the next step, by field studies and completion of 392 questionnaires by citizens, using the entropy method, the criteria and indicators of studies in two phases of pedestrian zones have been weighed and evaluated. The results show that the micro-design criteria and the three indicators "suitable design for the disabled and the elderly", "night lighting" and "urban facilities (trash and drinking water, etc.)" have the greatest weight and importance. Also, in ranking the two-phase pedestrian zones, citizens are more satisfied with the first phase with a normalization score of (0.52) than the second phase (0.47).