Investigating the Citizens' Attitude Towards Liveliness of Pedestrian Streets: A Case Study of Charbagh Abbasi Street, Isfahan, Iran

Enhancing the quality and liveliness of pedestrian zones is being increasingly turned into a significant scenario in the process of tourism development among competing actors at national, regional, and international scales. However, many projects regarding the development of pedestrian tourism routes are not welcomed by the public when operationalized due to their lack of liveness, despite the huge costs and time dedicated to them in the pre-planning phase. Therefore, the main question posed in this regard is whether there is any significant difference between different people in terms of knowing the factors involved in the liveliness of urban pedestrian zones. The answer to this question could be of great importance, especially in countries like Iran where the decisions to intervene in public spaces are taken unilaterally without the participation of the prospective users of such projects. Thus, this study sought to identify the barriers to obtaining liveliness in Charbagh Abbasi Pedestrian Street" in Isfahan via the Q method, trying to analyze the attitude of different people in this regard using Q factor analysis. To this end, ten frequent users of Charbagh Abbasi Pedestrian Street were selected via snowball sampling method, ten subjects were selected. Moreover, the required data were collected via semi-structured interviews with those ten participants and the review of the related literature, based on which some thirty-nine barriers were identified and prioritized. Finally, Based on the findings of Q factor analysis, the attitude of the participants was classified into three main categories. In other words, the findings of the study revealed three different perspectives on the barriers to obtaining the desired liveliness in such an urban space.