Journal of Sustainable Urban & Regional Development Studies (JSURDS)
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Modeling the barriers to pedestrian mobility and its impact on citizens’ psychological safety (Case study: Ahvaz metropolis)

Articles in Press

Document Type : Origional Article

Author

Saeed Abadoosh

MSc Department of General Psychology, Arsanjan Azad University, Fars, Iran.

Abstract
Given the role of human-centered spaces in improving the quality of life, the climatic and physical challenges of the Ahvaz metropolis have limited pedestrian mobility and threatened the psychological safety of citizens. Therefore, modeling these barriers and analyzing their consequences is an essential step in providing scientific solutions for designing resilient urban spaces and restoring social peace in this metropolis. This research was conducted with an applied approach and a descriptive-analytical method, and collecting the opinions of 50 urban planning experts, environmental psychologists, and urban managers of Ahvaz through the Delphi method, and using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and Mikmak software. In this study, 18 main barriers have been identified that affect pedestrianism and the psychological safety of citizens in the metropolis of Ahvaz. The complex and reciprocal relationships of these barriers have been examined with a systems approach and structural modeling to determine which of these barriers has a more radical impact and influence on other variables and ultimately on the pedestrian status and the promotion of citizens' psychological safety. The results of the study showed that pedestrian barriers in the metropolis of Ahvaz form a highly intertwined system and a vicious cycle of "linked variables" that always intensify each other; in such a way that in this hierarchical structure, "deficiencies in physical-climatic infrastructure (such as lack of cooling facilities)" and "perceptual-psychological challenges" are located as the most radical barriers (at the second level) and directly create and control the first-level barriers including management, traffic, and cultural challenges (such as car-centric dominance). Given this complex network, adopting any one-dimensional and cross-sectional intervention strategy in the surface layers is doomed to failure. Ultimately, developing pedestrianization and improving the psychological safety of citizens requires a comprehensive and simultaneous approach, the prerequisite for its success is the modification of physical-climatic nodes in the basic layer of the system

Keywords

sidewalk
pedestrianization
safety
psychological safety
interpretive structural modeling (ISM)
Ahvaz city
Subjects
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Journal of Sustainable Urban & Regional Development Studies (JSURDS)

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 27 July 2026

  • Receive Date 17 April 2026
  • Revise Date 22 May 2026
  • Accept Date 25 July 2026
  • First Publish Date 27 July 2026
  • Publish Date 27 July 2026

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