Urban Travel Behavior in Large Cities of MENA Region (UTB-MENA)

城市土地利用对出行行为的影响在西方国家尤其是北美已经成为大量文献的主题。这一主题在发展中/新兴国家，特别是中东和北非（MENA）的发展中/新兴国家中得到的关注相对较少。在中东和北非地区的几个国家，由于城市的快速城市化和城市形态特征的快速变化，如紧凑性、密度、街道网络结构、邻里便利设施、城市/地方中心等，人们认为，包括旅行长度、旅行时间、交通方式选择等在内的一些旅行行为规范受到这些变化的影响。该项目收集有关中东和北非地区此类协会的证据。此外，这些因素之间的相互关系，以及住宅的自我选择和汽车拥有量特别调查。它还旨在寻找影响城市旅行的社会经济影响之间的关联。观测在中东和北非的三个大城市进行：德黑兰、伊斯坦布尔和开罗。有有限的证据表明，在该区域，社会经济影响甚至比土地使用影响更大。这种相互作用是通过两种方式寻求的：对不同社区类型的横截面研究，以及为三个试点城市开发数学模型。通过历史/描述性分析以及统计建模（包括线性回归和多元Logit回归建模（MNL）作为离散选择建模方法）进行此类考虑。在这些观察中检查的出行行为特征是交通方式选择，汽车拥有量，旅行长度和旅行生成。通过应邀参加讲习班的中东和北非研究人员提出的方法，将试点城市的调查结果推广到中东和北非其他大城市。城市规模、宗教、地理、气候、公共交通可达性等相关因素被视为适用性/可转移性研究的有效因素。这些研究明确了中东和北非地区的哪些部分可以应用上述三个城市的成果。为中东和北非地区的规划者和决策者提出建议，为该地区的研究人员提供科学依据和数据库，以及在未来的研究和发展项目中使用的数值模型是重要的项目成果。上述将使该项目能够实现其总体目标，即鼓励中东和北非地区的研究人员和规划人员在该地区未来的研究和规划中考虑土地利用/交通的相互作用。

The effects of urban land use on travel behavior has been a subject to a large body of literature in western countries especially North America. This topic has gained relatively little attention in developing/emerging countries, especially those located in The Middle East and North Africa (MENA). With respect to rapid urbanization and fast change in urban form characteristics such as compactness, density, street network structures, neighborhood amenities, urban/local centers, etc. in several countries of MENA, it is assumed that some of the travel behavior specifications including travel length, travel time, transportation mode choice and the like are affected by these transformations. This project collects evidences about such associations in MENA region. Moreover, interrelations among these factors together with residential self-selection and car ownership are in particular investigated. It is also meant to find associations between socio-economic impacts that influence urban travels. The observations are conducted on three MENA large cities: Tehran, Istanbul, and Cairo. There are limited evidences that the socio-economic impacts are even stronger than the land use impacts in the region. Such interactions are sought in two ways; cross-sectional studies on different neighborhood types, and developing mathematical models for the three pilot cities. Such considerations are undertaken via historical/descriptive analysis as well as statistical modeling including linear regression and Multinomial Logit Regression Modeling (MNL) as a Discrete Choice Modeling method. The travel behavior characteristics that are examined in these observations are transport mode choice, car ownership, travel length, and travel generation. The findings about the pilot cities are generalized to other MENA large cities by means of approaches suggested by MENA researchers who are invited to take part in workshops. Factors related to city size, religion, geography, climate, accessibility to public transportation, etc. are taken as effective factors in applicability/transferability study. These studies define exactly which parts of MENA can apply the outcomes based on the three abovementioned cities. Recommendations for MENA planners and decision makers, scientific basis and database for the researchers of the region, and numerical models to be used in the future research and development projects are of the important project outcomes. The above will enable the project to fulfill its general goal, which is encouraging MENA researchers and planners to apply land use/transportation interaction considerations in their future research and plans of the region.