Identifying and prioritizing the attractiveness components of public transportation services in Gorgan city: a hybrid research

Expanding and promoting urban public transportation services is one of the main priorities of decision-makers in densely populated cities due to its many benefits. Therefore, identifying and prioritizing the attractiveness of public transportation services in Gorgan is one of the most important issues in promoting and expanding public transportation in this city.The current research is exploratory and mixed in terms of purpose, and practical in terms of results, which was done in two related steps: 1- Using the method of content analysis and theoretical and purposeful sampling, 18 experts and users of the service were selected and their opinions were obtained through semi-structured in-depth interviews, The analysis of codes led to the identification of 120 codes as influencing factors on the attractiveness of public transportation, and these codes were categorized into 9 components according to their relationship. 2- Using the fuzzy Delphi technique, 16 experts as urban experts and 26 people as service users were selected through theoretical sampling and their opinions were collected through a questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale and the data were analyzed.According to urban experts, information, service providers, vehicles, security and station status are significant as five important components in the attractiveness of public transportation services, while service users have somewhat different opinions than urban experts. And according to them, the five important components are, in order of priority, vehicle factors, access, information, service providers and station status.