An Analysis of the Role of the Social Acceptance of University Students’ Bicycle Use in Sustainable Urban Development when Epidemics Spread

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the acceptance of university students’ bicycle use in sustainable urban development in Iran when epidemics spread. The research method was descriptivecorrelational, and the investigation was carried out as a field study. The statistical population of the study consisted of university students, 254 of whom were selected by a simple random sampling method to participate in the research. The research instrument was a questionnaire based on the Sustainable Development with a reliability coefficient of 0.83; the social acceptance component was based on the theory of planned behaviour with a reliability coefficient of 0.8. As the results of the investigation have demonstrated, the bicycle plays a significant role in the development of the socialization process of people, and there is a positive and significant relationship between social acceptance and sustainable development (p<0.05). Furthermore, 20% of sustainable development change was achieved through the dimensions of social acceptance (planned behaviour theory). Finally, it can be argued that perceived behaviour in social acceptance is most likely to play a significant role in the emergence of sustainable development by external factors such as encouragements and persuasion of the family, important people, friends, acquaintances, and even by the existing norms in society. Subsequently, as people change their mindset when epidemics spread, they can turn all the behaviours they manifest in their leisure time into a culture development movement.