Publications

@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{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{Hosseini2016,

title = {Urbanization Trends and Urban Planning Stratagies in Three Major Middle Eastern Countries: Iran, Egypt, and Turkey},

author = {Maryamsadat Hosseini and Amr Ah. Gouda and Houshmand E. Masoumi},

url = {https://rjgeo.ro/atasuri/revue roumaine 60_2/Hosseini et al..pdf},

year  = {2016},

date = {2016-07-01},

journal = {Romanian Journal of Geography},

volume = {60 (2)},

pages = {155-171},

abstract = {Rapid urbanization has turned into a problematic phenomenon laying negative effects on the Middle Eastern cities and their peripheries. Although fast increase in urban population of the countries of the region has been well-researched, the connections to urban development strategies and patterns are being neglected. This paper examines the time coincidence of some of the dominant planning trends of the past decades that are considered to be associated with the intensive urban population changes. The paper attempts to discuss over the points in which the three countries witnessed significant increase and decrease in fertility rates. For that, the data of the World Bank have been applied. The graphs seen in this paper have been produced by the Google public data from the World Bank website, which provides the possibility of separating urban and rural populations. The descriptive analysis of this study shows that these vigorous changes of population growth rates have been more powerful in Iran and Turkey and steadier in Egypt. Examples of weak planning in the three target countries of this study, Iran, Egypt, and Turkey, such as failure in new city planning in Egypt, extensive sprawl in Turkish cities, rural-urban migration in Iran and Turkey, and the policy of wholesale land selling in Iran depict uncontrolled and vis-à-vis urban planning taking the wrong route. It is concluded that controlling urbanization trends in emerging countries, like the Middle Eastern states, requires a strong and strict urban planning system that avoids trial and error.},

keywords = {the Middle East, urban development strategies, urban policy, urban population, urban sprawl, urbanization},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}