Health Education and Health Promotion

Aims: The purpose of this study was to explain pedestrians' perception of the factors affecting the use of bridges according to the theory of planned behavior.
Participants & Methods: This qualitative study included 25 participants who were knowledgeable about pedestrian bridge use, and it was conducted in Yazd, Iran, from April to October 2018. Semi-structured interviews were used to extract the perceptions of behavioral, control, and normative beliefs of pedestrians. After transcribing the interviews, a directed content analysis was performed. Data analysis was performed by researchers with existing logic and MAXQDA 12 software. Finally, the beliefs of the pedestrian were extracted, and their outstanding beliefs were determined according to their frequencies.
Findings: 18 subcategories, 42 integrated codes, and 331 codes were identified. Less stress and more relaxation were identified as the most important advantage, and high energy consumption and traversing long distances were identified as the main disadvantage of pedestrian bridge use. The most frequent verifies were family members, and the main disapproving community was familiars, sick and disabled people, and family, respectively. Unsafe and non-standard equipment and facilities was introduced as the most important factor making it difficult to use the bridge, and the most effective facilitator was providing amenities such as escalators.
Conclusion: To increase using bridges by pedestrians, we require focusing on feeling more relaxed as the main advantage, family members as the main verifier, friends and peers as the most frequent disapprover, creating standard and safe facilities, and installing escalators the pedestrian bridges.