Publications

@article{Masoumi2020,

title = { Urban Commute Travel Distances in Tehran, Istanbul, and Cairo: Weighted Least Square Models },

author = {Masoumi, Houshmand},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci4030039},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-08-23},

journal = {Urban Science},

volume = {4},

number = {3},

pages = {39-63},

keywords = {Cairo, commuting, Istanbul, MENA, Middle East and North Africa, sustainable mobility, Tehran, Weighted Least Square modeling},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Mostofi2020,

title = {The Association between Regular Use of Ridesourcing and Walking Mode Choice in Cairo and Tehran},

author = {Mostofi, H., Masoumi, H., Dienel, H. L.},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145623},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-07-13},

journal = {Sustainability},

volume = {12},

number = {14},

pages = {5623},

keywords = {accessibility, Cairo, ICT, MENA, Ridesourcing, sustainable mobility, Tehran, Urban transportation, urban travel behavior, walking},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Masoumi2020b,

title = {Transferring Urban Mobility Studies in Tehran, Istanbul, and Cairo to Other Large MENA Cities: Steps toward Sustainable Transport},

author = {Masoumi, H.; Fruth, E. },

doi = {https://doi.org/10.2478/udi-2020-0003},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-04-09},

journal = {Urban Development Issues},

volume = {65},

number = {1},

pages = {27-44},

keywords = {accessibility, Cairo, Istanbul, MENA, sustainable mobility, Tehran, Transferability, urban policy, Urban transportation, urban travel behavior},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Masoumi2019b,

title = {A Discrete Choice Analysis of Transport Mode Choice Causality and Perceived Barriers of Sustainable Mobility in the MENA Region},

author = {Masoumi, Houshmand, E.},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2019.04.005},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-07-15},

journal = {Transport Policy},

volume = {79},

pages = {37-53},

abstract = {Although there is considerable number of studies on urban travel mode choice, there are still two gaps: we have limited understanding of perceived and attitudinal barriers of sustainable modes and motives of personal car use, and the causes (not correlations) of mode choice decisions are almost unknown for certain geographical contexts such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This study seeks to answer three questions: (1) what are the main barriers to choosing sustainable transport modes like active mobility and public transportation in the Middle East and North Africa? (2) which attitudinal or physical determinants define the transportation mode choice intentions and decisions in Tehran, Istanbul, and Cairo? and (3) what are the differences between the determinants of mode choice decisions in the case cities compared with those of Western societies? In this study, the data collected from 8284 interviewees in Tehran, Istanbul, and Cairo in 2017 were applied in a discrete choice model. The dependent variables of the modeling were the perceived main reasons against walking, biking, and public transit ridership, and the main factor encouraging car-driving. According to the findings, long walking distances, absences or lack of biking infrastructures, social and cultural problems and pressures against biking, and personal preference for cars compared to public transport prevent passengers from walking, biking, and using public transport. Comfort and convenience are the factors that make people avoid public transit in favor of cars. These determinants are fairly different from the main determinants of mode choice decisions in the Western societies. By applying a multinomial logistic regression model, 11 variables related to travel characteristics, perceptions, land-use and neighborhood, socio-economics, and self-selection were found significant or marginally significant in explaining all four models: the barriers to walking, biking, and public transit-use, and the motives for car-use. These findings support the hypothesis of this study that there are differences between the perceived and physical barriers to sustainable mobility as well as the motives of car-use in MENA megacities compared to Western societies. In short, mode-choice decisions and perceived determinants are context-sensitive. The conclusions of this study could be applied in urban and transportation planning in the MENA region to promote more sustainable mobility modes.},

keywords = {Cairo, Egypt, Iran, MENA, sustainable mobility, Tehran, the Middle East, urban travel behavior},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Aslam2019,

title = {Urban travel characteristics in relation with jobs-housing balance and accessibility: results of a survey in Lahore, Pakistan},

author = {Aslam, S. Atif Bilal; Masoumi, Houshmand, E.; Hussain , Seyed Arif},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-07-02},

journal = {GeoScape },

volume = {13},

number = {1},

pages = {13-54},

keywords = {accessibility, Pakistan, sustainable mobility, urban form, urban land use},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Masoumi2019c,

title = {Residential location choices and the role of mobility, socioeconomics, and land use in Hafizabad, Pakistan},

author = {Aslam, S. Atif Bilal; Masoumi, Houshmand, E.; Naeem, Nida; & Ahmad, Mohammad},

doi = {DOI: 10.5379/urbani-izziv-en-2019-30-01-004},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-06-23},

journal = {Urbani Izziv},

volume = {30},

number = {1},

pages = {115-128},

abstract = {Residential self-selection in developing countries and its relation to urban transportation are understudied and not fully understood. This knowledge gap is even greater in the case of small cities in the developing world. This study takes Hafizabad, Pakistan as a case study with the objective of providing data for future quantitative analyses about residential location choices in small cities on the Indian subcontinent. A sample of 365 residents was interviewed from four neighbourhoods with a combined population of 19,042. This resulted in individual and household response rates of 1.92% and 12.65% and confidence levels of ±5.08% and ±4.79% for individual and household questions. The results show that the most important factors influencing residents’ decisions about moving are availability of utilities/services and affordable prices. Factors related to transportation, accessibility, and social issues, such as proximity to work and relatives, come next. The role of transportation in residential location choices in Hafizabad is less important in comparison to high-income countries. This finding shows how urban form can shape residents’ travel behaviour and suggests that small cities are more compact and walkable because about 40% of job-related trips are made by walking. The results of this study will help inform relevant government organizations about how to effectively devise policies for small cities because policies grafted from large metropolises might not work well at a smaller scale.},

keywords = {community-based planning, sustainable mobility, transportation decisions, transportation preferences, urban development strategies, urban policy, urban travel behavior},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Masoumi2019aa,

title = {Neighborhood-Scale Urban Form Typologies of Large Metropolitan Areas: Observations on Tehran, Istanbul, and Cairo},

author = {Masoumi, Houshmand, E.; Terzi, Fatih; Serag, Yehya},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.09.005},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-02-15},

journal = {Cities},

volume = {85},

pages = {170-186},

abstract = {The micro-level urban morphology of large cities in the Middle East and North Africa and southeastern Europe has not been thoroughly investigated, and its transformation during the past decades has remained less-studied. Hence, this study is meant to partially explain urban morphology of Istanbul, Cairo, and Tehran, three megacities of the region by focusing on the historical neighborhood typologies of the past century. The overall aim of this study is to address the feedbacks of historical urban transformations during the past 100 or 150 years to some important aspects of livability like mobility and social interactions. The objectives are to define the typologies of neighborhoods in the three cities and how they have changed over time, to clarify if the neighborhood-level urban form of the three cities have transformed in a similar fashion, and to address the differences between the cities. The variables of this study were population density, centrality, formation and location of facilities, and configuration of street networks, which were tested by T and Chi-square methods in a representative sample of 259 neighborhoods randomly selected from the case-study cities. The results of statistical hypothesis testing reveal a similarity of neighborhood transformations in the cities in terms of population density. Considerable similarities were found in case of historical changes in centrality (the centeredness of neighborhood amenities), location of neighborhood facilities, and street networks; however, the three cities have general similarities in trends, with potentially similar results for urban mobility. The most important identified planning, political, and societal trends that transformed the neighborhood morphologies were top-down interventions in the 1930s and 1940s, socioeconomic and lifestyle changes in the 1970s because of a jump in oil prices, Iran's 1979 revolution, the Iran-Iraq War for Tehran, internal migration triggered by industrialization, mass and formal housing production for Istanbul, and European inspiration in urban planning in the late 19th century, adoption of socialist ideologies in the 1960s, and the capitalist approach to urban planning in recent years for Cairo.},

keywords = {Cairo, Egypt, Iran, Istanbul, large cities, MENA, sustainable mobility, Tehran, the Middle East, urban policy, urban travel behavior},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Aslam2019b,

title = {Izbira stanovanjske lokacije ter vloga mobilnosti, družbenogospodarskih dejavnikov in namenske rabe prostora v pakistanskem mestu Hafizabad},

author = {Aslam, A. B., Masoumi, H. E., Naeem, N., Ahmad, M.},

url = {https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=782325},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-02-01},

journal = {Urbani Izziv},

volume = {30},

number = {1},

pages = {43-56},

keywords = {Pakistan, sustainable mobility, urban form, urban land use},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Masoumi2019a,

title = {Cyclability in Lahore, Pakistan: Looking into Potential for Greener Urban Traveling},

author = {Aslam, S. Atif Bilal; Masoumi, Houshmand, E.; Muhammad, Asim; & Anwer, Izza},

doi = {DOI: 10.6092/1970-9870/5806},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-12-28},

journal = {TeMA. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment},

volume = {11},

number = {3},

pages = {323-344},

abstract = {Measuring perceived or objective cyclability or bikeability has drawn less attention compared to walkability, particularly in developing countries like those in South Asia and the Middle East. This paper presents the results of a survey about cyclability in Lahore, Pakistan, focusing on human perceptions rather than the built environment. The overall sample included a total of 379 respondents from three socio-economic classes: those from lower socio-economic backgrounds accessing traditional/older bazaars, respondents from the middle socio-economic class accessing uptown bazaars, and respondents of higher socio-economic status accessing pedestrian shopping malls. The exploratory data collection was conducted in spring 2018 in Lahore by means of a short standard questionnaire with 19 questions, resulting in 17 categorical/dummy variables, two open-ended variables, and two continuous variables targeting socio-economics, bike trip characteristics, biking barriers, and preferred travel specifications. The results showed that the middle socio-economic group was more inclined, flexible, and willing to bike compared to the lower and higher socio-economic-groups. The lower socio-economic group used the bicycle more frequently than the middle socio-economic group. Around half of the middle socio-economic group commutes via bike compared to the lower socio-economic group. There was little to no representation of 55-64 and 65+ age groups in the data. The descriptive findings of this survey indicate some preliminary signs of differences of decisions and perceptions about biking compared to high-income and European countries. These differences need to be tested in future statistical analyses.},

keywords = {sustainable mobility, urban land use},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Masoumi2018f,

title = {Urban Travel Behavior in the Middle East and North Africa},

author = {Houshmand E. Masoumi},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-10-01},

journal = {TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment},

pages = {3-6},

keywords = {MENA, sustainable mobility, urban travel behavior},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Masoumi2018,

title = {Neighborhood size in planning large cities of the Middle East and North Africa: insights to mobility and social interactions},

author = {Houshmand E. Masoumi},

url = {https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10708-018-9859-2.pdf},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-018-9859-2},

issn = {1572-9893},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-02-22},

journal = {GeoJournal},

pages = {1-12},

abstract = {Recently a number of cities of the Middle East and North Africa like Tehran, Istanbul, Cairo, Mashhad, and Esfahan have defined a new neighborhood-level division system. According to academic literature and the implemented practice, the Iranian cities have had the main goal of promoting bottom-up approach in urban governance as well as public participation in regeneration/gentrification plans. Based on the statistical analysis by Analysis of Variance and Welch’s Test undertaken in this study, the areas determined for the neighborhoods in Tehran, Mashhad, and Esfahan are significantly larger than that of the historical cores of two cities in central Iran, namely Yazd and Kashan. This finding indicates that Iranian decision makers did not mean to use the vernacular urbanism to generate a city of short distances with local centrality that leads to sustainable mobility and enhanced social effects. Focusing only on public participation and local governance and neglecting the potential benefits of changing human behaviors and perceptions by means of sustainable urban forms may be targeted by other Middle Eastern and North African countries like Turkey and Egypt, because the size of the new quarters in these countries are very similar to that of Iran. As a result of this analysis, the planning bodies of the region are recommended to include two main fields in their neighborhood planning in parallel: (1) community-based planning with the aim of enhancing public participation and urban gentrification; (2) physical neo-traditional neighborhood planning with the aim of creating human-scaled fabric and promotion of sustainable mobility and social effects.},

keywords = {community-based planning, Middle East and North Africa, neighborhood planning, sustainable mobility, traditional neighborhood development},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}