Evaluating significant factors that influence public transport usage in Kerman, Iran

Although public transport is recommended to develop a sustainable transport system, the percentage of daily trips by public transport in Iran specifically in medium sized cities such as Kerman is very low. Currently, efforts are being made to indicate significant factors that prevent public transport usage in developed countries but few studies have been conducted in developing countries. Only a few studies have considered public transport usage in Iranian megacities and medium sized cities such as Kerman require more attention. Therefore, this study tries to identify effective factors that influence public transport usage in urban areas in developing countries like Iran and in medium sized cities like Kerman. In addition, this study tries to investigate various ways to increase public transport ridership. The people awareness regarding benefits of public transport usage is also tested in this study. This study uses questionnaire and observation to collect data. The descriptive analysis based on the collected data shows that most of the people are aware of public transport benefits. These benefits include environment protection, reduction in parking demand and traffic congestion, lower travel cost (compare with private vehicle), fewer mental stresses, more safety, and being more convenient. Although people are aware of public transport benefits, there are some issues that prevent them to use public transport properly. Insufficient information about public transport schedules, lack of attractive facilities and suitable waiting stations and inadequate reliability are examples of issues that discourage people to use public transport. The results show that some improvements such as providing suitable information about public transport schedules, considering comfortable facilities to increase attractiveness, improving waiting facilities and reliability can encourage people to use public transport. © 2016 by MIP.